The article “Do pictures help tell the story? An experimental test of narrative and emojis in a health text message intervention” written by Shuang Liu and Jessica Fitts Willoughby discusses the positive health benefits that young adults get from narrative mobile phone interactions such as emojis or gifs.
The article analyzed the disparity of human interaction based on the narrative style of text conversations and the results that showcased that sending messages with gifs or emojis led to much less chance of arguing and an increase in attention to the conversation.
The data was tested on college students who have high dependency on their mobile phones and extremely busy and fast paced schedules.
Notifications and distractions are at an all time high for college students making it sometimes difficult for them to focus on a text conversation whether it is with a family member, classmate, or best friend. But, when the conversations are being held with more imagination and fun, the thread is longer and shows more emotion from both sides involved.
We have all been in the situation where you try to reach to someone who have you have not seen in months because you are both at school and it just does not goes as expected. The conversation is dull and it kind of makes you sad with how boring the interaction ended up being.
That conversation starts with a “Hey bro! How are you? How is Chicago treating you?” and they give you a short simple answer that really does not lead anywhere, but if you lead with a gif, emoji, or an old picture, the conversation is way more likely to expand.
I have actually been in this position multiple times and it definitely works. It adds a level of emotion and personal interaction that text sometimes cannot emulate. Gifs and emojis show another level of effort that is only used when you want to enhance an interaction.
This type of conversing will not go away any time soon. The percentage of people texting like this skyrockets as you come across the youth population and this group will not stop as they age. It is a way of expression, and it is a habit that has been instilled into how we operate.
It seems simple and basic, but it is a staple in today’s world and its bigger than just text messaging. It is all over social media as well which is another massive thing that will never go away.
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