A lot of emoji use is just slang. Just like regular word language. “that’s cool”, “that’s hot”—these can mean the same thing. Slang is also subcultural. :skull: won’t make sense to a 60+ year old man.
Another use is just to tack on to sentences like a little pizzaz. I’m going to the doctor :hospital:
Another common use is to soften formal-sounding written-only language. A lot of relatively older people don’t get or think about how their regular-ass sentence writing in informal contexts sounds stiff, angry, or even passive-aggressive to some younger people. Like writing a chat message with a period at the end? That can come off as very passive-aggressive. (See how even regular, grammatical, perfectly HN-approved (no emoticons) can have a tone even without any snark?) So if you have to write a sentence at the end? A smiley can soften that.
The ambiguity can also be intended. We all write for different people. We don’t intend to communicate perfectly. Some ambiguity is often good (in our opinion). One of the emoticons is interpreted by some as passive-aggressive, but far from all. That sounds like a great thing for a passive-aggressive person: plausible deniability.
People that dislike emojis and who also like to communicate clearly (perhaps to a fault) can take heart that some of the slang-energy is diverted into symbols. Now your regular-ass words are less likely to take on new, bewildering meanings.
Another use is just to tack on to sentences like a little pizzaz. I’m going to the doctor :hospital:
Another common use is to soften formal-sounding written-only language. A lot of relatively older people don’t get or think about how their regular-ass sentence writing in informal contexts sounds stiff, angry, or even passive-aggressive to some younger people. Like writing a chat message with a period at the end? That can come off as very passive-aggressive. (See how even regular, grammatical, perfectly HN-approved (no emoticons) can have a tone even without any snark?) So if you have to write a sentence at the end? A smiley can soften that.
The ambiguity can also be intended. We all write for different people. We don’t intend to communicate perfectly. Some ambiguity is often good (in our opinion). One of the emoticons is interpreted by some as passive-aggressive, but far from all. That sounds like a great thing for a passive-aggressive person: plausible deniability.
People that dislike emojis and who also like to communicate clearly (perhaps to a fault) can take heart that some of the slang-energy is diverted into symbols. Now your regular-ass words are less likely to take on new, bewildering meanings.