Since last week, the photography social network Instagram has taken a whole step forward when it comes to customize comments, descriptions and ratings of photos. And it is that he has introduced the Emoji emoticons, those little drawings well known for their use through WhatsApp , as if they were labels Thus, and although Instagram already supported and allowed to enter these emoticons between the text of your social network, it is now possible to use them to categorize and mark photographs, finding new related content by clicking on them.
The funny thing is that Instagram has invested effort and time to investigate how users use these style emoticons Emoji If they really replace the usual written language, and if all users use them in the same way. An exhaustive analysis that has already yielded several interesting data, and that the team of engineers at Instagram has endeavored to explain in what will be a series of publications on their official blog to know all the details of the faces, hearts, smiling poops and characters dancing flamenco/salsa
The first thing they clarify in this first report is that Instagram has always supported emoticons Emoji In other words, it has always been possible to add these cute drawings in the descriptions and comments of photos and videos.However, its use began to become popular from 2011, when Apple introduced the collection of expressions to its keyboard Although its growth has been exponential since that point, the opening of the platform to Android in 2012 also meant a report. And since then, the rise of emoticon keyboard apps still pushed its growth further to the present day.
Of course, not all markets use the same emoticons Emoji in Instagram And it seems to be the Finns, with 63 percent , who most accompany their texts with these expressions, objects and icons to give emotion to their comments and assessments. On the other side of the graph, where the Emoji are used the least, are countries like Tanzania, who only accompany a 10 percent of their posts with these icons
Now, does a heart mean the same thing to some as it does to others? What is the emoticon that users use the most? These questions are also answered in the Instagram report, and they seem totally intrigued to find out what use is made of this resource through their social network For this reason they have created algorithms that seek to analyze what expressions, labels and contents are associated to each emoticon, also trying to predict in which messages they will appear according to their theme. The results indicate that the meaning of the drawings is quite universalized, remarkably coinciding in the use of the same emoticon in different countries and languages for the same contents and expressions. In addition, it has also been possible to find out which is the most used emoticon: tears of joyGenerally used for funny and humorous content, followed by the emoticon with hearts in the eyes
It seems that emoticons Emoji have changed, or are changing, the way we communicate. And it is that they are part of our day to day thanks to applications such as WhatsApp, but also in social networks , where they are increasingly accepted, regardless of the culture or language of the users.
