Mobile Emoticon Use for Positive Behavior and Communication: Focusing on Male and Female College Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare college students' emoticon use for positive behavior and to analyze the impact of the factors. This study is consisted of 66 questions based on Social demographic characteristics, personality characteristics factors and both scales of emotional expression. The operational test was administered to 340 college students. In an effort to calibrate emoticon use of positive behavior, the results displayed significance differences depending on the gender and grade of the students. Women used more emoticons than men, and freshman used more emoticons than any other year of students.Women used more emoticons such as texts, images, and flash more than men. Students in their freshman year were shown to use more emoticons than students in other grade levels. Emotional expression was strongly related man with personality traits of integrity. Personality traits of sensitivity, openness, intimacy, and sincerity had a significant influence on the emotional expression. An emoticon is, therefore, be a useful tool to express their emotions. Male and female students with higher levels of congeniality had expressed more emotions that were self-defence ambivalent and concerned-relation ambivalent. However, in the case of the female students, those with higher levels of self-defence ambivalent emotional expressiveness had a lower usage of positive emoticons, while male students with higher levels of self-defence emotional expressiveness used more positive emoticons. Higher levels of congeniality among groups that use mobile emoticons with their parents, whether the frequency of use was high or low, were associated with higher levels of self-defence ambivalence and concerned-relation ambivalence. Those with higher levels of sincerity had low levels of self-defence ambivalence and concerned-relation ambivalence, and those with higher levels of concerned-relation ambivalence had higher levels of positive emoticon usage.--

Adolescent bystanders’ moral emotions in cyberbullying

“…In particular, additional predictive power for morally disengaged or responsible emotions was found when a negative emoticon was added to the ambiguous text. This might be because a positive emoticon is generally used more often than a negative emoticon among adolescents as a means of reinforcing positive emotions (Bae & Choi, 2004) or enhancing interactivity, such as building intimacy and bonding with the conversation partner in social networks (Ju et al, 2016; Yu & Choi, 2016). Consequently, it can be inferred that the effect of emotional information in a positive emoticon might be smaller than that of emotional information in a negative emoticon.…”