Los emojis en las interacciones sociales de los jóvenes en whatsapp

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of emojis in social interactions of young people on WhatsApp, focusing on students of the Communication career of the Technical University of Machala. The research aims to analyze how young people use emojis according to the social group with which they interact (family, friends and academic), as well as to identify their benefit in WhatsApp communication, describe the most used emojis and differentiate their use according to the social group. For this, a mixed methodology was implemented, applying interviews to three experts and the development of 4 focus groups distributed with the 28 participants. The results show that emojis are beneficial and important in the WhatsApp communication of young people, as they allow them to express their emotions and feelings, and also complement the messages making their communication more effective and faster. In addition, the data reveal that the emoticon category is the most used, that in the academic environment they choose 'not to use many emojis and that emojis can have specific meanings depending on the social context with which they interact. These findings benefit the understanding of digital language and its implications in the social interaction of young people, proposing future research on the function and impact of emojis in different communicative environments such as academic and work.