Identifying Cross-Cultural Differences of Emoticons In Computer-Mediated Communication: A Comparison of North American (U.S.) and South Korean Emotional Responses to Emoticons

Abstract

The lack of physical communication cues, such as facial expressions, in text-only communication has prompted the creation of emoticons to represent feelings. Moreover, the emoticon has become a new “cultural” language adopted by a community of users who find emoticons useful for expressing an emotional state during their online communication. Using emoticons in computer-mediated communication (CMC), which includes any means of communication on the Internet, especially instant messaging (IM) programs, helps users convey and enhance the underlying emotional aspects of their communication facilitating user communication by providing non-verbal cues and clues to clarify a message. Although many researchers have studied the differences in the use of emoticons between males and females and different age groups and some even report cross-cultural differences and similarities between CMC and face-to-face (FTF) communication such research is not sufficient to understand the effective use of emoticons. The current research explores three categories of emoticons - textual, pictorial, and animated emoticons – to ask the broad question: Do North Americans and South Koreans use emoticons differently? The research examines the cross-cultural differences involved in using emoticons, focusing on the visual aspect of online communication that provides emotional cues to understand the differences in their use. Textual emoticons and pictorial emoticons of MSN messenger are used in this study's questionnaires. The results indicate the cross-cultural differences of emoticon use and recognition between North Americans and South Koreans.