That Emoji Does Not Mean What You Think It Means

Notable error in the article. They say:

> about half of the characters used on Instagram are emoji ( http://gizmodo.com/emojis-are-becoming-the-dominant-language... )

but the linked article says:

> As of March 2015, nearly half of all text-based communications over Instagram contained emoji.

That's a huge difference in meaning.

Here is the paper

http://grouplens.org/site-content/uploads/Emoji_Interpretati...

So, I've been texting a gal for awhile. I use Android; she owns an iPhone. Now I'm worried that I've been sending her the wrong signals.

Whoops.

It's nice to see that comments sections are moving away from illiterate bile towards performance art.

As emoji have become more popular in the corporate messages, this could be a really big problem. I usually contact my credit card operator in chat, and they always include an emoji. Sometimes I really don't understand why they send that smile that is looking as someone anxious. But know I understand better.

When I look at the emoji they show for the "grinning face with smiling eyes", three of them strike me as being nowhere close to that description. But I am especially intrigued that the three of them all fail in the same way: the mouth is flat with teeth bared, like a growling dog. I interpret that as much closer to a grimace than a grin.

What's really interesting about that is that it seems like a really unlikely mistake to make. Grins bend the corners of the mouth upward, yes? Surely not many people would say no? At least in the cartoon language of emoji, I would have expected that to be universally agreed upon.

That suggests to me a common cause rather than independent error. Was it a mistake that propagated through copying? Did one initial mistake become established through usage as meaning something different from the specs? Something else?

It would be interesting to know the lineage of these faces and to understand where the mistake was initially made, and if perhaps it was perpetuated intentionally. None of the other emoji have misconstrual measurements anywhere close to that one, which suggests a story.

On the iPhone the difference between the "grimacing" emoji and the one discussed here is extremely slight (the grimacing one has circles for eyes instead of arches). The grimacing one is supposed to be the actual negative one.

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