This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 17th Feb 2022.

How many emojis have you seen or sent recently? Perhaps like me to start with, you were not a big fan of their use, it took some convincing for me to use them, along with the extensive expansion of the range of emojis now available so I felt I could really express myself. Now, they are an integral part of effective electronic communications and expression. Read on to understand the full impact of these simple yet powerful icons and symbols:

Simply a smiley face - Who would have thought that a small smiley face could mean SO much? But it can and does, especially for the sender of the emoji, who is using them as a “visual means to express a message playfully without using words”. When we think about the range of human emotions and the extensive emojis out there, we can start to appreciate their hidden power.  The Merriam Webster dictionary defines an emoji as any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication (as in text messages, email, and social media) to express the emotional attitude of the writer, convey information succinctly, communicate a message playfully without using words, etc.

On September 19, 1982, almost forty years ago, the first emoticon was used by Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon, who noticed that conversations were going awry on electronic message boards the staff was using to communicate in the early 1980s and jokes were being lost. So Fahlman, then in his early 30s, made a simple, legendary suggestion: if you’re being humorous or ironic, label your comment with a smiley face made of a colon, dash and parentheses. The birth of the emoticon was made by the creative use of text punctuation combinations (see below for an example).

More than meets the eye - As the availability of graphic emojis expanded within the Unicode (previously unicode standard), which is an information technology standard for the encoding and handling of text, the variety of emojis extended. In 1991, originating on Japanese mobile phones emojis became increasingly popular worldwide in the 2010s after being added to several mobile operating systems. Read more on Wikipedia about Emojis.

As technology has advanced, some systems that use emojis, even enable the creation of custom emojis, which means you can really personalise how you express yourself, if you find that the emoji you need does not exist in the library.

The spectrum of human emotions - There is a question over whether a single icon or symbol can illustrate and convey the gamut of human emotions? Anyone who has children may perhaps know the monster of different colours book collection, by the author Anna Llamas, which aims to teach children emotional intelligence and awareness via the use of friendly and colourful monster illustrations. It elegantly proposes that many of our emotions are jumbled and we feel a selection of feelings, potentially all at once, in the same moment. We can’t always name them either. Is it the same for emojis choice and use? You might select the one nearest to the dominant or what you deem most appropriate to what you see visually in front of you.

Broadly speaking, a recent research study found emojis do reflect how we feel, but there are some gaps. Psychologists now see emotional experiences as falling along with continuous scales of both valence — how positive or negative an emotion is — and arousal. So, for instance, “sadness” has a negative valence but is fairly low in arousal; “anger” is also negatively-valenced but high in arousal; and “excitement” is positively-valenced but still high in arousal, a new study in Scientific Reports concluded. In summary, emojis can be clustered based on the logic above and which is illustrated below.

Interestingly, the team found that the emoji library didn’t quite represent all emotions. In particular, there were no emojis that were neutral in valence but high in arousal — think emotions like being “tense” or “alert”. So there are still some gaps in the emoji library.

Lost in illustration - It is wise to consider the interpretation of emojis' meaning, particularly factoring in age, cultural background and native language. One of my favourite emojis to say thanks, 🙏🏽  can mean prayer hands in both India and Indonesia, for example. To avoid cultural crossed wires, read more here about how the use of emojis without a cultural context or consideration could lead you to be “lost in illustration!” 

Emotional clues and cues - The use of emojis by remote teams on instant messaging software for communications, regular check-ins and better expression. You can read a good summary of how remote-first company @Remote How, use emojis on threads on their @Doist productivity app here. 

Recently a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that these little text "extras" can have a major role when it comes to keeping tabs on the mental health of your workers as they can provide a reliable sign if tracked. As such, the Michigan researchers were looking at what nonverbal cues might be available within online communication to better allow us to communicate our own emotional health and interpret that of our colleagues. They gathered data from GitHub's remote worker communications, which contained information from millions of posts made on the platform.

They were looking for developers who may drop out or leave roles, ultimately researchers were able to predict the risk of developers leaving with 75% accuracy. One researcher commented:

“You can make fairly accurate predictions of whether people will drop out just based on how they use these pictographs,” they explain. “You don’t even need to look at their work productivity or the actual words they say—just look at how they use emoji.”

Waving hand symbol - In conclusion, these small icons can be more than they first seem, and given careful thought and application they can be a valid way to express, communicate and have fun. Or more so, they could be a worthwhile barometer of the emotional wellbeing of your remote teammates. As a remote team leader, ensure you remain curious about this topic. It's one that fascinates me as all valid ways to foster better human expression in our remote world are intriguing! 

To receive notifications when Remote Work Digest Newsletters are released, subscribe here. For a full immersion into Remote Work best skills, practices and training -check Rowena’s website.

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on 17th Feb 2022.