Reinterpret 3G Emoticons from a Persona Theory

Abstract

As the use of Instant message service increased, emoticons also have been changed and developed in various forms. Especially, 3rd-generation (3G) emoticons are being spotlighted as new communicative tools because they provide wide selection of choice through vividly personified characters. To reflect this trend, this study formulated and confirmed a hypothesis that the more emoticons are personified and sophisticated, the more people tend to regard emoticons as persona. And to prove it, we follow three steps: 1) we account the definition and characteristics of 3G emoticons; 2) we examine whether 3G emoticons reflect people’s social personality by adopting Five-Factor Model; 3) based on a great deal of research that has revealed gender differences during real conversations, we analyzed gender differences in 3G emoticons usage through self-report questionnaire. As a result, we verified that people recognized 3G emoticons as kinds of their’ persona rather than just tools to facilitate conversations.