The chat without the emoji pack lost the soul-
Nearly 60% of college students interviewed said that they could not leave the emoji package
The emoji pack is the "shield" of Niu Xiaoben.
I'm sorry to confess directly to the girl I like. He sent an emoticon package-a hand of the cartoon character Daxing Daxing stretched out friendly, and the words "make a friend" on the picture were crossed out and changed to a small one. "Talk about a love".
"In this way, if someone disagrees, you can also reply with an emoticon, just as it is a joke, and the two people will not be too embarrassed."
There are 616 emoticons neatly arranged in Wu Yakun's favorites.
"Adjust the rhythm of communication" "Active chat atmosphere"...Hundreds of emoji packs each perform their duties, fully satisfying Wu Yakun's chat needs in different situations.
In her view, emojis are helpful for expressing her emotions, and now they have become a necessity in social life.
It has spanned 39 years from the first emoji ":-)" on the Internet to the popular "Lina Belle".
In 1982, Professor Falman of Carnegie Mellon University created the smile symbol ":-)", which opened up a new imagination space in the field of online communication that was "led" by text characters for a long time; and the horizontal emoji " The emergence of "embossed characters" has further advanced the emoticon function of network symbols.
Emoji took over the baton in 1999, prompting emojis to shift from character combinations to graphics; in 2006, the "Tusky" series of emojis created by Wang Maomao from the Animation Department of Communication University of China marked the formal entry of emoji packs into the "dynamic era".
With the appearance of various self-made emoticons on the Internet one by one, emoticons have gradually become an indispensable part of online social scenes.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily conducted a questionnaire survey of 4351 college students across the country. The results showed that 87.41% of the interviewed college students often use emoticons, 10.25% use them sometimes, 1.79% rarely use them, and only 0.55% of the respondents don’t use them at all. Use emoticons.
Nearly 60% of the interviewed college students said that they could not leave the emoji: "Chat without emoji has lost the soul."
Using pictures to express ideas, emoticons have become the "sub-language" in the social field
When he was in junior high school, Niu Xiaoben began to use emoticons in chats and social network comments.
After the university had its own mobile phone, online communication became the norm, and the emoji began to "occupy" his chat interface.
Two years ago, Niu Xiaoben was still in college. At that time, all his expression lists were panda heads, curators, stickmen, and bursts with black wireframes and "scribbled" patterns in the painting style. Most of the text is ridicule and satire.
"At that time, emojis were mainly used to fight pictures and fight with classmates and friends." Now, his style has turned 180 degrees, and cute emojis such as cats, dogs, and cartoons have the upper hand.
This is because there are more and more types of emoticons, "also because I'm older, it's time to'pretend to be cute'".
Different from often participating in group chats in the past, now he has more one-on-one chats with his mentors and friends. This environment also prevents him from being as "assuming" as in group chats. The "cute style" of emoticons has gradually replaced "sharpness". wind".
Scholar Li Wei wrote in the "Research Report on the Development of Internet Language in China": "Emoji packs are the sublanguage of the social field in the Internet era. Its appearance and popularity indicate that emoji is a unique symbolic communication of human beings as the primate of all things. The method has migrated from offline to online."
From desktop computers to smartphones, emojis have never been absent.
The China Youth School Media Survey found that 15.88% of respondents started using emoticons since elementary school, 45.16% of them started using them in junior high school, emoticons appeared in the high school era of 29.97% of college students surveyed, and 8.09% said they only started using emoticons in college. .
Emoticons flow in various social scenes.
The results showed that 72.72% of the interviewed college students would use emoticons to express their emotions, 63.57% thought that emoticons were easy to show friendliness, and 60.49% of the respondents were accustomed to using emoticons to ease embarrassment.
Wu Yakun, a junior this year, is also a "senior user" of emoji packs.
"It can be traced back to the middle school age, and it has been more than 10 years now." Recalling the history of the use of emoticons, Wu Yakun said that he has witnessed the development process of emoji popularization and diversification.
"I remember that the emoji packs in the 3G era are particularly slow to load. After 4G appeared, the loading speed was faster, and the frequency of using emoji packs is also getting higher and higher." In her opinion, the update iterations of Internet technology provide for the transformation of emoji packs.了基。 The foundation.
Liu Hanbo, Ph.D. from Jinan University, pointed out that the development and popularization of emojis are not accidental. The popularity of emojis is definitely not an accidental and random cultural phenomenon, but a power transformation under the combined forces of the development of technology, the evolution of media, and the secularization of society.
Its growth history is inseparable from the development history of the Internet. It can even be said that the history of emoji is a branch of the history of the Internet.
Niu Xiaoben, who used to collect emoticons in chat, now has more channels to obtain emoticons.
When he sees interesting pictures and moving pictures on various platforms, he saves them and uploads them to the chat software; he sometimes makes emoticons for certain relatives and friends, such as "XX is the best".
When the channels of interactive communication are opened up and the threshold of image production technology is lowered, people can make their own emoticons, and use a combination of images and texts to construct dialogue scenes with richer expressions and a stronger sense of substitution.
The China Youth College media survey found that 76.21% of the interviewed college students had made their own emoticons.
One of Niu Xiaoben’s classmates is the “emoji pack manufacturer” in the class. “He is very good at observing details, and sometimes makes some mock emojis, such as replacing the face of his classmate with the expression on the panda head and matching it with Their mantras, these will become the emojis for the whole class."
A picture is worth a thousand words, it is both a "lubricant" and a "circle code"
If the emoji pack goes offline one day, Shen Xinyi may not be able to accept it.
In her opinion, the emoticon pack is a universal tool for her online communication.
Compared to fun, she pays more attention to the functionality of emoji.
In Shen Xinyi's cognition, emoticons are part of non-verbal communication, which can effectively improve their lack of speech in online communication.
"Sometimes the expression is not enough, in order to avoid the other party's misunderstanding, I will quickly send an emoticon." There are hundreds of such emoticons used to express friendliness and relieve embarrassment. There are hundreds of social software in Shen Xinyi.
The China Youth College media survey found that 54.79% of college students surveyed are keen to share and collect emoticons.
78.05% of the interviewed college students think that emojis are more emotional than words; 64.49% of the respondents express their enthusiasm and kindness through emojis, and shorten their social distance; 62.58% use emojis as their "source of happiness" .
"I'm too food, take me." When looking for help from seniors and classmates, Niu Xiaoben will come with a self-deprecating emoticon pack.
In his opinion, an overly serious tone is not suitable for chats between acquaintances.
With the emoji blessing, you can turn the "banzheng" dialogue into a joke among good brothers.
"It doesn't hurt to say a few jokes that are usually embarrassing."
Peng Lan, a professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Journalism of Renmin University of China, analyzed in the article "Emoticons: Passwords, Labels and Masks". In performances based on memes, we often see soft, exaggerated, disguised, and perfunctory performances. situation.
Among them, "soft performance" refers to some emoticons that can soften people's corners and corners, which may instantly make people friendly and down-to-earth.
“Most emojis have an animation style, which makes them have their own atmosphere adjustment function, which can shorten the distance between the two parties and create a cordial and relaxed atmosphere for the exchange.” According to the China Youth College media survey, 73.16% of the interviewed college students like cuteness Types of emoticons.
In the online interview some time ago, Shen Xinyi felt the "gentle charm" of the emoji.
The interviewer sent a cold text with a "dog's head" expression, "The serious atmosphere was'neutralized' in the moment." Most of her tension and depression disappeared, "The whole interview process is much easier. "Shen Xinyi said frankly that the atmosphere adjustment function of the emoticon pack has played an irreplaceable role in the silent, no body movements, no eye contact, and expressionless communication of the screen to the screen.
Communication based on emoticons has often become a cultural temptation and "joint".
When both parties discover that they have a common "password", group identity will be generated.
Niu Xiaoben has seen some B-Station Up hosts make their own emoticons, and fans who like them can download them for free.
When these Up hosts broadcast live broadcasts and post videos, their own emoticons will be frequently posted by fans in the comment area.
Niu Xiaoben's favorites also have some emoticons specially used in the animation community.
These small expressions are used as a code for "inside people" and circulate in a small area.
"Emotions are generally based on anime characters familiar to the group members, because we all know the background in which the freeze-frame moments on the emoji pack happen. It is more interesting to use if we can understand the meaning of these emojis."
Through research and analysis, Peng Lan found that in addition to the overall cultural attributes of the young group, different emoticons may also reflect the culture of various subgroups.
"Many emoticons are generated and disseminated in specific communities or groups, or represent the interests and tastes of specific groups, and may also be related to the collective memory of certain groups. Therefore, some emoticons also load sub-group cultures. Passwords." Even the post-90s, post-95s, and post-00s groups who belong to the same group of young people will have differences when using emoticons, and groups of different cultural orientations will also have different preferences.
In some groups, their own unique niche emoticons will also appear.
"When you find that the other party has the same type of emoticon pack with you, you will subconsciously regard the other party as your own, and feel close." Wu Yakun said.
Make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses, are there "infinite possibilities" in emoji packs
Even if he recognizes the functionality and fun of emoticons, Shen Xinyi still believes that frequent use of emoticons, "especially fighting pictures" and other behaviors are not appropriate.
"On the contrary, it will break the original order in the exchange group." In Shen Xinyi's view, the excessive use of emoticons is a kind of disturbance to people in the group who do not participate in the "fighting carnival". "If there is information that has just been released, it will be very It may be submerged in the ocean of emoticons."
Peng Lan pointed out in the paper that "Fighting Carnival" is like an "exaggerated performance" based on emoticons. "Sometimes emoticons may be an exaggeration of real emotions. It is related to the performance needs in interaction. In many cases, this It is to attract the attention of others in interactions, especially group interactions (such as WeChat groups), and sometimes it even becomes a way of secretly contesting."
Wu Yakun also disagrees with the excessive use of emoticons.
"Excessive use of emoticons can easily lead to miscommunication and lack of in-depth communication. It creates a feeling that the other party is perfunctory." Wu Yakun once had such troubles when communicating with a student organization's junior.
After couldn't help but communicated with the younger brother, Wu Yakun got a reply "why do you want to talk with emoji".
"I don't approve of this behavior. Emoticons cannot replace text as the main content of communication."
In Shen Xinyi’s opinion, the chat scene that needs to be considered when using emoticons is, "A thousand people have a thousand Hamlet. Such problems are more likely to show up in intergenerational communication. Maybe your elders don’t understand it well. The connotation you convey through the emoji."
85.31% of college students surveyed believe that the expression of emoticons has become richer than before.
When talking about the development of emoticons, Shen Xinyi said that emoticons carry memories of the times.
People can even get a glimpse of the social hot spots at the time by recalling the "popular" emojis of the past.
"However, no matter how fun the game is, you will get tired after a long time. In order to better survive and develop, it is very necessary to continue to innovate and standardize the use of emoticons."
Emoticons move from the Internet to reality. If the scene comes in the right way, the sense of humor will be multiplied.
Niu Xiaoben saw a video. In a tug-of-war match, a team member made a mask with curator Jin and a panda's head and put it on his head, causing the other to laugh and could not fight back.
In 2018, Mexico hosted the first museum exhibition with the theme of emojis-"Museo del Meme".
In the exhibition hall, the popular "ghost animal" emoticons such as sad frogs and runaway cartoons are molded into sculptures, and some sloppy patterns and screenshots of film and television works are framed into exquisite picture frames.
Looking at the photos of these exhibits, some netizens “suddenly realized”: “The bronzes of Sanxingdui may be the emojis of ancient Shu people?” Some netizens followed: “Maybe in a few thousand years, people in the future will dig out (emoji packs). At the museum, these sculptures thought we would look like this."
According to the planners of this exhibition, they have been preparing for this exhibition for 10 years before, and these 10 years are also 10 years when social networks are prospering.
Niu Xiaoben witnessed the emoji walking on a avenue full of flowers.
"If I can fine-tune the changes in the emoji discourse over the past ten years and make it into an exhibition, such as which'stem' is popular in which year, and which series of emoji is the most popular in which year, then I will definitely check it out. It must be full of memories." In his imagination, he might be sighing from beginning to end: "Isn't this the one it was back then?"
(At the request of the interviewee, Niu Xiaoben in the text is a pseudonym)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Luo Xi Bi Ruoxu Cheng Si Source: China Youth Daily