Nusrat Zareen, Nosheen Karim, Umar Ali Khan.
Psycho Emotional Impact Of Social Media Emojis.
Isra Med J Nov ;8(4):257-62.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the “potential psycho-emotional impacts of digital emojis on instant messaging applications users." STUDY DESIGN: Survey research. st th PLACE & DURATION: Public and private work and educational institutions of Rawalpindi Islamabad, from 1 March to 10 August 2016. METHODOLOGY: A questionnaire pertaining to psychological dependence related to the usage of emojis was designed. A total of 97 individuals participated in the survey, randomly selected from the work and educational institutes of Rawalpindi Islamabad, after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Percentage response of the participants to the questionnaire was compared. Chi square test was applied to analyze the association of time, gender, and age to the participants' response. RESULTS: Ninety percent of the participants rated emoji message more meaningful as compared to traditional texting. Forty-two percent considered emojis as strong, 17.5% as a very strong measure for emotion expression. Reflecting the psycho emotional dependency on emojis, 46% reported moderate, 21% strong and 18.5 very strong effects of mere presence or absence of emojis in digital messages. On missing an expected emoji from a sender, 47% claimed to suffer moderate level of negative mood effects while 6% reported very strong level of negative effect. Most of assessed responses in the study were independent of age, time spent on digital messaging and gender influence. However, emojis effectiveness for emotion expression, specific emoji expectation, and mood swings by usage or non usage of emojis revealed significant association to age, gender or duration of usage on chi square test. CONCLUSION: Digital emojis can render adverse psycho emotional effects on the users.

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