Using emoticons is a female thing

[Ex-User (14663)]

While emoticons tend to be androgynous, there are gender differences among those who employ them. In her study “Expression Online: Gender Differences and Emoticon Use,” communications researcher Alecia
Wolf found that women used emoticons nearly twice as often as men. She also found that women most frequently used emoticons to convey humour (35 percent), while men tended to employ emoticons most frequently to express sarcasm (31 percent).

souce

I pretty much never use emoticons to indicate I am joking. I think that's a good thing.

Or is it just that females are more emotionally sophisticated?

 

[JR_IsP]

The thing with emojis and females it's that the most females I know (even when introverts) have some need for expression and non-verbal (or written in this case) comunication, and the best they have is emojis.

Also is fair better using them sometimes to be "friendly". That's in part why I se them on the forum, but on chats with friends emojis gain another meaning. For example, I often talk about poilitics with an ENTP friend of mine, and we often use the black flag to represent anarchy (or anything stupid, with ENTPs you can never be totally serious).

It has also something to do with contact to technology, people spending more time on the phone use them more often, along with abbreviations and internet-slangs, and that goes for males too... and it's something useful, how can you really express laughing on text? A simple hahaha feels either too empty or sarcastic.

Finally, but not least, maybe prejudices and social pressure also influence the use of emojis, mainly on instant chats or groups. Like cultural expressions.

 

[onesteptwostep]

I always wonder why people research into pointless shit like this. Not an inch of humanity has progressed from this research...

 

[washti]

ZEXIZT

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

i use them to reduce ambiguity

 

[Black Rose]

 

[Happy]

I use periods to indicate humour. The original emoticon.



Oh fuck. Yeah I think that bullshit study might actually be right...

 

[Jennywocky]

I use periods to indicate humour. The original emoticon.

Women use periods to indicate irritability.





... oh come on, that was funny...

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

I always wonder why people research into pointless shit like this. Not an inch of humanity has progressed from this research...

I think you should start using more emoticons

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

This is incredible.. I just checked message histories with two different girls on my phone. I see now that they put a smiley in every message they sent! I haven't noticed this before.

 

[cosmicflow]

I think it depends on the person not the gender poeple used emoticons because it makes it easier to know what other mean is he laughing or angry because its hard to know by texts. Oh and am a girl and i use sarcastic emoticon always

 

[Nebulous]

Okay I'm going thru my message to see


Here's a glimpse into ..?

Spoiler

Dude emoticon usages:
.____.



Look what I made

Thanks

Haha

I'm cleaning my room so I can't talk byeweeeeeeeeeeeweewewe✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️

I am soo coming to ur house and stealing this !!

Give me a copy

Have fun at the movie✌️

Me:
Night have spicy dreams fuck a bedbug ✨⭐️

:,)))))))



'U don't need to to do drugs to b cool'

Dude look



I wonder who I'll have lunch with then

NONONONOONONONOOOOOOO ;-;-;-;;-;-;-;-

Aw fam ;n;
*sends you hugs*

Thanks!!! ✨

Okay! Thanks so much.



Welcoming death rn
:,))))

;<;

;U; ermehgerd sherlerk ✨



I cry so much over this scene


;u; ✨✨

YO I feel s'all good. Gtg ahh. My parents don't know I have email or iMessage so

YASS*

that was the plan

Nah fam I got a shitload of homework ;0;

Im Slytherin ✨

Ha ok
And I told her not to attack people.
Sorry about that

;D

Spock ✨✨✨✨

I took so many pictures of myself with those eyebrows omg
•_____________•

Other girls:
Aw that's sucks

[neb] wtf

O no spam whoops

;-;

He is beautiful

I can't believe that there are actual Hannibal memes out there that u haven't already seen

hah the username

Omg mean girls hahah





Who should i pick

You are such a beautiful spirit! Remember to open your heart and let it shine.. Bathe yourself in love

My story on wattpad has 69 reads ✌️

U dont have the ears

Yup the feels



how many fandoms do u have



it's great how horrible a person he is

I would much rather see theo shirtless tho ✌️





Flower crowns ✌️



oh [neb]

You never cease to amaze me [neb]

Ya my dad doesn't know abt my iPod, so it's kinda hard to use it with him around



Not even lunch



can u hang rn ;0;





^~^

x3

;w;

;-;

It's so pretty ;-;

;w; aw

Nu ;-;

Aww

Save me

 

[Haim]

Your(me) generation is doomed

 

[Nebulous]

Your(me) generation is doomed

Seems so. I'm going into junior year of high school if that gives reference.

Dudes usually use simple smilies like
Girls use as a response to most things

My fav is

 

[TheManBeyond]

fred durst made a song singing about how shitty and cool was his generation in 99/2000 or so, John Otto, take 'em to the Matthew's bridge, calling himself member of the x generation saying shit like: g-g-generation XD and everyone liked it. if some band does same thing in 2017 i bet they get memed, bullied and many more things.
hell, even phil anselmo who used to be a badass was memed due to his drama because of the nazi hand thing he did in a concert. now everyone thinks he's retarded.
the spanish guy who went to eurovision fucked it up in the last scream and he was bullied in social media so he released a social campaign called "i got over it" to support victims of bullying.
everyone has to be soooo good and sooo correct and sooo perfect and sooo minimalistic. and soooo fucking boring.

the comunity has the power. and they fucking suck.

as for emoticons, i normally use XD (dunno if this is emoticon) and ;D and . so little times cuz this is like gud guy.

 

[JR_IsP]

Just look at CN or whatever the TV (or YouTube, to be more fair) this generation use to watch.

I grown on the most epic moment of all time, at least for me. Discovery and Nat Geo were awesome. There were several good series on the TV and I had that Encarta program on my parent's computer. Everything was awesome.

Now it's all memes and stupidity. Maybe because of millenials impact on the next generation. I'm plenty sure millenials aren't the youngest generation right now. Sure, they grown with internet and videogames, but now kids are being raised by "political correctness" (aka consumist bullshit) and YouTube.

I went to a 5 yo birthday party around a month ago (family...), and the cake was, and no joke... a minecraft cake.

What can you expect of a society promoting stuff like that?

 

[Hadoblado]

I think the research area is legit, and think that emoticons are highly adaptive.

I can't stand being misunderstood. A lot of my humour is easy to misinterpret in the absence of social cues. Emoticons are a low effort way to convey an enormous amount of information without detracting from the clarity of your point.

The amount of information that is lost by converting what is said intotext is enormous. Facial cues, body language, tonal cues, emphasis, hesitation etc. This is all stuff we learn to intuitively interpret without thinking that enhances communication.

Basically... You know that conversation you've had on the internet where someone (maybe even you) was being sarcastic, and someone else (again maybe even you) didn't get it and then someone had to explain the sarcasm and the other person had to explain how sarcasm doesn't work on the internet and the people were called autistic and blablabla. If you never want to have that conversation again, use and appreciate emoticons. Maybe women use them more, and there perhaps is such thing as using too much, but there is a non-zero amount of emotis to use that will enhance your communication.

 

[Haim]

But it is funny for someone to think you are serious.

(you say that now I should insert some image spam I chose )

 

[Hadoblado]

If that's your intention then don't use emoticons at the time you want to be mistaken for being serious. But I don't think that's a very good reason to not use them on principle.

 

[Happy]

http://www.emojidick.com/

 

[Hadoblado]

I was expecting to get in a lot of trouble for clicking that link. I was sorely disappointed.

 

[Haim]

I think the research area is legit, and think that emoticons are highly adaptive.

I can't stand being misunderstood. A lot of my humour is easy to misinterpret in the absence of social cues. Emoticons are a low effort way to convey an enormous amount of information without detracting from the clarity of your point.

The amount of information that is lost by converting what is said intotext is enormous. Facial cues, body language, tonal cues, emphasis, hesitation etc. This is all stuff we learn to intuitively interpret without thinking that enhances communication.

Basically... You know that conversation you've had on the internet where someone (maybe even you) was being sarcastic, and someone else (again maybe even you) didn't get it and then someone had to explain the sarcasm and the other person had to explain how sarcasm doesn't work on the internet and the people were called autistic and blablabla. If you never want to have that conversation again, use and appreciate emoticons. Maybe women use them more, and there perhaps is such thing as using too much, but there is a non-zero amount of emotis to use that will enhance your communication.

If that's your intention then don't use emoticons at the time you want to be mistaken for being serious. But I don't think that's a very good reason to not use them on principle.

Well this was to be expected, you are now the dude how did not get it.
Hell I might now also be the one that did not get your sarcasm.
Sarcasm works great on the internet, because people don't know you are sarcastic and take you serious, if they would not take you serious that would break the sarcastic chain.
And just for the hack of, for me to also be the people that call someone autistic, I am autistic.

 

[Green]

I use them sometimes. Ive had an idea that it stems from insecurity too.

"This person might get mad if I dont expressly indicate that this is a joke."

But perhaps it is a sensitivity thing too. If one has the tendency to tell crude jokes in person you would lighten it with inflection or gestures. Cant really do that in text so we use cartoon symbols to compensate. Its probs a good skill to be able to tell jokes without that crutch though.

edit

I just remember Joe Rogan (or it was maddox, I cant remember now. PS what do you guys think that guys type is? Hes so good at nitpicking details but gets lost in frivolity like an amateur, i suppose hes doing satire though so it could be apart of the act) discussing this, making fun of the fact that we're going back to hieroglyphs..It is funny though because we do use words for precision and emoticons are less so. I also find it an effective tool for tinder flirts; (or it was maddox, I cant remember now. PS what do you guys think that guys type is? Hes so good at nitpicking details but gets lost in frivolity like an amateur, i suppose hes doing satire though so it could be apart of the act)

 

[QuickTwist]

This explains a lot actually. I rarely use emoticons. I use the most emoticons on PerC.

Gay guys also use more emoticons.

I usually use music as emoticons as weird as that is. Sometimes its supposed to be funny, most times its supposed to emphasise a state of being.

The real question is whether Kurt Cobain would use emoticons.

Also, I LOL'd at Happy's first post. Very clever. Now I know what to look for.

 

[Rixus]

I do use them, mainly to express that a comment was humorous in order to avoid ambiguity. Text messaging can be so flat even with good punctuation, and without tone of voice things can get easily misread. That said, I mostly only use them when talking to women anyway. I don't use them that much, either, I just remind myself to use them because they are. I've know some to use them so much they often look like they're talking in hieroglyphics.

 

[Cleopatra Selene II]

lol its probably a thinker/feeler thing rather than a male/female thing. Correlation does not equal causation. I personally rarely use emoticons and when I do it is to either show sarcasm (when it is not obvious with wording) or to avoid having to fake-express emotion with words (example being someone saying "I love you" and me responding with a heart to avoid having to say "I love you" back when I don't mean it and to avoid hurting feelings).

 

[TransientMoment]

... Wolf found that women used emoticons nearly twice as often as men. I pretty much never use emoticons to indicate I am joking. I think that's a good thing.

I use them twice as much as men and half as much as women.

 

[Polaris]

I learnt to use emoticons when phone texting became a thing. Initially, I did not think to use them, but realised the effect when other people used them, so now I use them more because I get a bit paranoid. People have told me that I am not very expressive, so I am often misunderstood, i.e., people think I am not happy when I am, or vice versa, I don’t display excitement, joy, anger, etc. I do often feel irritable, and can snap if I’m overwhelmed with stimuli though. Places like trains and buses are the worst triggers. I feel like punching people when they talk over each other to me, or if I’m in a group of people bantering around, I feel very confused and can get angry (on the inside ).

Someone at work asked me how I was while something bad was happening in my private life, and I replied truthfully that I wasn’t ok. I mean, why should I lie? However, what she couldn’t understand was that I displayed no such behaviour as to indicate my state of mind, because I was joking around like normal, and she asked how I could even be at work. I said I just compartmentalise. In that way, I can function fine without interference of emotions. It’s just a coping strategy. The concept seemed alien to her.

I experience emotions, I just don’t display them the way people expect me to, which means I am never quite sure when or how to use emoticons either. I may even use them inappropriately, because using them doesn’t come naturally to me, just like everyday conversations.

The other day, my hairdresser tried to strike up a conversation and it was so awkward, I had to go to into hiding for the rest of the afternoon because I was exhausted from the sheer effort of trying to put my face into the appropriate expressions, while combining that with appropriate answers. I just struggle terribly with small talk.

/ramble

Perhaps women (generally) are just more naturally inclined, but also socially trained to be tactful, considerate and kind, which means they would have higher awareness of their conduct, including written. Emoticons would be used carefully, just like social graces. Women tend to defuse more actively, and I do it through careful writing (this post is a terrible example because I’m tired and my English suffers as it’s not my first language) which means I don’t need to rely on emoticons as much.

But I try to adjust emoticon use, depending on who it is I am texting. Some people I know (mostly male), I don’t have to worry about because they don’t seem to care, but I know one female who would probably hold it against me if I didn’t use emoticons in my messages. Her messages are very over-the-top gushy, and I think she expects it back, or you always feel like she wants something back. I therefore tend to rebel and keep my replies very brief, but add a smiley so she at least doesn’t think I am being hostile. I would cut her out of my life if it wasn’t for the fact that I have to relate to her through family.

Here I use emoticons for effect because I just like them. They are like old friends. I used to draw comics, so they kind of have the humour about them that I used to tap into with my drawings. Must be something about the German wackiness, dunno. I have yet to find emoticons elsewhere that I am happy to use. When I had a facebook account I never used them because they looked fake (perhaps as accurate reflection of fakebook). The forum’s smileys seem more genuine. I guess it’s like font. The smallest nuance makes a big difference in expression.