Great article! I feel like I could write a whole other paper of my own analysing your emoji choices lol - btw 😀🙂 <- many ppl don’t view these as happy.. quite the opposite actually 😭
Loosely related, but as someone from the UK, your research made me realise it isn’t necessarily the weather I enjoy in the summer, but it’s more about the…
Great article! I feel like I could write a whole other paper of my own analysing your emoji choices lol - btw 😀🙂 <- many ppl don’t view these as happy.. quite the opposite actually 😭
Loosely related, but as someone from the UK, your research made me realise it isn’t necessarily the weather I enjoy in the summer, but it’s more about the abundance of daylight hours.
British ppl in the summer are some of the happiest ppl in the world. Which sounds strange when the temperature often isn’t anything to write home about, but sunlight from 3/4am to 9/10pm at its peak definitely is. Even more so when you factor in the endless months of cloudy overcast skies in the winter, with 8am sunrises and 3pm sunsets.
In which case you’re absolutely right, a short getaway even if it is to another European country with sometimes even colder weather - is immediately worth it for that valuable sunshine.
If "🙂" represents the opposite of good mood then I'm not sure what to say. Do you consider that everyone who smiles slightly is always hiding deep angst within? :P
A slight smile is definitely something we can all pull off in the real world - but that emoji specifically is often used to denote sarcasm, annoyance, passive aggressiveness etc believe it or not 😆
Its hard to describe why. I think its in the inexpressiveness of the pupils? - a sort of 'smile that doesn't reach the eyes'. Though I do admit this isn't a universal take, and having had this exact conversation with many family and friends, it seems like both a gender and generational divide. But on the whole women and young people use that emoji in a more ironic way. From personal experience, its also quite easy to tell when someone is using it earnestly or not using context clues.
Anyways! If you couldn't tell I'm actually really interested in this topic and the ways people interpret and use emojis to express emotion; its not as universal as you think and even evolves over time. But this particular one is always slightly controversial. Please do ask the people around you for their opinions, you might be surprised!
Oh I get that "🙂" can be and is used to denote all sorts of emotions, just like real-life smiling is. But surely all of them can be grouped under the umbrella of "good mood"? Sure, the good mood can be fake or sarcastic! But it's still displayed good mood, and "🙂" seems like a better general representation of that than any of 😀😃😄😁😊☺️, all of which appear to be expressions of more specific and/or temporary states. Like, I agree that, say, "😊" is a more heartfelt expression of joy, but I would use it to represent a happy reaction in the moment, not the idea of generally being in a good mood throughout the day, which is more or less how I used "🙂" in the post. (Actually, looking at it, I used it to represent the idea of "mood" in general, not even qualified as good or bad!)
(I also enjoy emoji analysis as you probably can tell 😄)
I definitely see where you’re coming from! Of the ones you list, none really conveys a slight smile. For that particular purpose, I actually find a lot of people opting for the classic “:)” despite the array of emojis at their disposal. Which ofc adds a whole other layer of nuance lol
Even in one of your earlier comments, you opt for a “:P” instead of any of these “😋😛😝😜🤪” — and I totally understand why! Theres nothing really *slight* about any of those compared to the more lowkey nature of a classic “:P”
Great article! I feel like I could write a whole other paper of my own analysing your emoji choices lol - btw 😀🙂 <- many ppl don’t view these as happy.. quite the opposite actually 😭
Loosely related, but as someone from the UK, your research made me realise it isn’t necessarily the weather I enjoy in the summer, but it’s more about the abundance of daylight hours.
British ppl in the summer are some of the happiest ppl in the world. Which sounds strange when the temperature often isn’t anything to write home about, but sunlight from 3/4am to 9/10pm at its peak definitely is. Even more so when you factor in the endless months of cloudy overcast skies in the winter, with 8am sunrises and 3pm sunsets.
In which case you’re absolutely right, a short getaway even if it is to another European country with sometimes even colder weather - is immediately worth it for that valuable sunshine.
Thank you!
If "🙂" represents the opposite of good mood then I'm not sure what to say. Do you consider that everyone who smiles slightly is always hiding deep angst within? :P
A slight smile is definitely something we can all pull off in the real world - but that emoji specifically is often used to denote sarcasm, annoyance, passive aggressiveness etc believe it or not 😆
Its hard to describe why. I think its in the inexpressiveness of the pupils? - a sort of 'smile that doesn't reach the eyes'. Though I do admit this isn't a universal take, and having had this exact conversation with many family and friends, it seems like both a gender and generational divide. But on the whole women and young people use that emoji in a more ironic way. From personal experience, its also quite easy to tell when someone is using it earnestly or not using context clues.
Anyways! If you couldn't tell I'm actually really interested in this topic and the ways people interpret and use emojis to express emotion; its not as universal as you think and even evolves over time. But this particular one is always slightly controversial. Please do ask the people around you for their opinions, you might be surprised!
Oh I get that "🙂" can be and is used to denote all sorts of emotions, just like real-life smiling is. But surely all of them can be grouped under the umbrella of "good mood"? Sure, the good mood can be fake or sarcastic! But it's still displayed good mood, and "🙂" seems like a better general representation of that than any of 😀😃😄😁😊☺️, all of which appear to be expressions of more specific and/or temporary states. Like, I agree that, say, "😊" is a more heartfelt expression of joy, but I would use it to represent a happy reaction in the moment, not the idea of generally being in a good mood throughout the day, which is more or less how I used "🙂" in the post. (Actually, looking at it, I used it to represent the idea of "mood" in general, not even qualified as good or bad!)
(I also enjoy emoji analysis as you probably can tell 😄)
I definitely see where you’re coming from! Of the ones you list, none really conveys a slight smile. For that particular purpose, I actually find a lot of people opting for the classic “:)” despite the array of emojis at their disposal. Which ofc adds a whole other layer of nuance lol
Even in one of your earlier comments, you opt for a “:P” instead of any of these “😋😛😝😜🤪” — and I totally understand why! Theres nothing really *slight* about any of those compared to the more lowkey nature of a classic “:P”