Winking smiley, heart, palm tree, peach, koala: Emojis are extremely popular and almost everyone uses them – although they often cause confusion for most people.
More than 80 percent of people in Germany send emojis. Almost one in five (19 percent) do so in every single message, 31 percent in the majority of messages and 24 percent in a few messages. This is the result of a representative survey commissioned by the digital association Bitkom among more than 1,000 respondents aged 16 and over, which will be published on Wednesday (July 17) on the occasion of World Emoji Day.
Is the smiley serious or ironic?
For more than half of respondents, emojis sometimes lead to confusion: “For 56 percent, emojis have caused confusion in conversations, and for 16- to 29-year-olds, this is even true for 73 percent,” Bitkom reports. The figure has remained roughly the same compared to a survey three years ago.
“Emojis have become an elementary part of internet culture,” says Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder. “They can enrich digital communication, but sometimes they also lead to confusion.”
Men say more often than women that emojis help them express themselves
More men (51 percent) than women (43 percent) say that emojis help them express themselves better. According to the survey, a total of 46 percent are annoyed when others only respond with an emoji instead of writing a text. Only 15 percent think there are too many emojis. And only 8 percent say they hardly or very rarely use emojis.
Emojis have become a kind of global language in the internet age. People use them in text messages, emails or chats, often in messenger services such as WhatsApp or Signal. The symbols refer to feelings, objects, places, animals, food or even more abstract things. The word comes from Japanese and means “picture character”. It comes from the Japanese characters for “e” (picture), “mon” (expression) and “ji” (letter).
Emojis have also become more common in job communication
Emojis are mainly used in private communication with family, friends and acquaintances (98 percent). But emojis are also used in professional life: 29 percent use emojis when communicating with colleagues, for example, and 19 percent when communicating with superiors.
More than one in ten (12 percent) are also not afraid to use emojis in communication with online shops or craft businesses, for example.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
