Emoticons have become such a part of our lives that without them the alphabet looks incomplete, and messages seem dry and distant. But even such a frivolous and childishly simple task as arranging emojis has its own subtleties.
What do different emoticons mean?
With object emoticons, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there’s nothing to think about. But with face emoticons the task becomes more complicated. We are not always able to correctly guess emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the faces of koloboks. There are emoticons whose meaning is obvious:
Fun, laughter, joy, rejoicing.
Sadness, melancholy, melancholy, dissatisfaction.
Playful mood, teasing.
Surprise, amazement, shock, fear.
Anger, resentment, rage.
And several more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.
But among the emoticons there are also those whose meaning can be interpreted ambiguously, or even be completely confusing:
This emoticon depicts a person sobbing in three - well, in two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not distorted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to the point of tears. Be careful with them: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.
This emoticon is intended to represent silence. Instead, he just scares you to death.
If everything is more or less clear with the evil devil (“angry as hell”), then the cheerful devil is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also looking forward to dancing on your opponent’s grave. But you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and an unusual smiley.
Despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear or speak anything precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles cover their eyes, mouth and ears in shame, confusion and shock.
A set of cat emoticons for those who consider ordinary koloboks to be insufficiently expressive and want to add sweetness to their emotions.
Instead of “hello” and “bye,” you can wave your hand.
Raised hands, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.
The applause is both sincere and sarcastic.
If in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you the emoji may mean “thank you” or “I beg you.” Well, if you see a high-five happening here, it means you are a very cheerful person.
A raised index finger can emphasize the importance of a message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply indicate a previous message in the chat.
Fingers crossed for luck.
For some it’s “stop”, but for others it’s “high five!”
No, it's not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.
Ogre and Japanese goblin. Looks like someone is missing the usual devils.
Liar. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.
These are eyes wide with amazement, and the darting eyes of a scoundrel, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in a comment to a photo, you can be sure that the photo is good.
And it's just an eye, and it's watching you.
New moon and full moon. It seems like nothing special, but these emoticons have their fans who value them for their creepy facial expressions.
A very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (arms above head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (arm raised up). This character has another pose that confuses many - . According to the official version, it symbolizes a help desk employee. Apparently, she is showing with her hand how to get to the city library.
Do you also see two tense faces here, presumably in an unfriendly mood? But they didn’t guess: according to Apple’s hints, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!
By the way, you can see hints for emoticons in the message window on if you open an emoji and hover over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:
Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to turn to emojipedia.org for help. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.
Where are emoticons appropriate?
1. In informal friendly correspondence
Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, and make faces at each other. This is where emotions belong.
2. When emotions splash over the edge and there are not enough words
Sometimes, when something very important happens in our lives, we are so overwhelmed with feelings that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Some people, of course, won’t like this, but what now, stifling all the bright sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to overuse such public displays of violent emotions: this will alienate subscribers and call into question your adequacy.
3. By agreement, to highlight messages in work correspondence
This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require an urgent response visible. For example, great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases are considered urgent in your company and what emoticon you will use for this.
It’s important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for messages about emergency situations, a second for urgent issues, a third for important news, then soon all your work correspondence will turn into a New Year’s garland that no one looks at.
When is it better to do without emoticons?
1. In business correspondence
Work is no place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your friendliness or express concern about a situation, use , not emoticons, for these purposes.
2. When communicating with foreigners
This is especially true for gesture emoticons. For example, the person you wanted to express approval of will put an end to your good relationship with a person from Greece or Thailand. Of course, with this gesture you sent him to hell.
Therefore, if you are not confident in your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not take risks.
3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions
Feelings are a serious matter. If you are not just chatting, but revealing your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you only have one heart, so give it away.
Remember that emojis are a seasoning, not the main ingredient. You only need a small amount to add punch to your message.
Emoji language
Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace language: you can write an entire message using only emoticons. In the popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres there is even a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where some of the words are replaced with emoji:
And here the name of the film is encrypted, which we invite you to guess.
Most Internet users are accustomed to emoticons. Emoticons are usually called miniature images created using punctuation marks. With the help of emoticons you can express your emotions, feelings, and state of health. The VKontakte social network, like many other services, provides users with the opportunity to use this type of communication when exchanging messages. In the form for sending messages, we are offered standard emoticons, as well as a huge number of non-standard emoticons denoting various objects, food, and national flags. These are built-in graphics that can be used by all users. But sometimes ordinary emoticons are not enough, then special codes come to the user’s aid, indicating emoticons that are not in the general list.
Where to find VKontakte emoticon codes
The set of emoticons that people could use when communicating online was initially very limited. Gradually, the number of such graphic images created from punctuation marks and various symbols became more and more, users came up with new emoticons and sent them to their friends. Then they began to collect emoticon codes into special tables, where you can select the desired image and, by copying its code, send it to your interlocutor.
Currently, tables with codes can be found on various Internet resources that provide them completely free of charge. In the table, emoticons are grouped into groups to make it easier to find the desired emoticon. It's very easy to do. We find a suitable table with a large selection of emoticons, select the desired emoticon and copy its code. Then simply open the VKontakte dialogs and copy the found smiley code into the message. All that remains is to click the Send button and instead of an incomprehensible set of characters, we see the emoticon that you chose.
Most users are so accustomed to emoticons that they simply cannot do without them and use bright smiling faces not only in messages, but also in statuses.
How to display VK emoticons in status?
The use of emoticons in the status indicates a great experience of the user, since the social network does not allow directly inserting graphic images. You can use emoticons in messages even if you don’t know their codes, but this option is not provided for user status. How to be? Tables of emoticons come to the aid of an inexperienced user, where you can find emoticon codes and their decoding. Emoticons suitable for inserting into the status of a user or group on VKontakte have a special digital code; there must be signs before the set of numbers. At the end of the digital code of the emoticon, you must put ;, otherwise it will not be the graphic image that is inserted, but simply its code that you copied.
With the help of emoticons and special tables with codes, you can beautifully design the status of a group or your own and it will be clear to everyone what mood you are in now.
Initially, emoticons were invented for short answers, but today their main purpose has already been forgotten; emoticons are used to enhance the emotional coloring of the text, to express one’s feelings, approval or censure. With the help of emoticons, you can confess your love if you cannot find the words, congratulate your loved ones on their birthday, or express your opinion about any event. Emoticons can be used almost everywhere, except for business correspondence, where smiling or winking faces may be inappropriate.
Emoticons have become such a part of our lives that without them the alphabet looks incomplete, and messages seem dry and distant. But even such a frivolous and childishly simple task as arranging emojis has its own subtleties.
What do different emoticons mean?
With object emoticons, everything is simple: they mean what they represent. A ball is a ball, an alarm clock is an alarm clock, and there’s nothing to think about. But with face emoticons the task becomes more complicated. We are not always able to correctly guess emotions from the faces of living people, let alone the faces of koloboks. There are emoticons whose meaning is obvious:
Fun, laughter, joy, rejoicing.
Sadness, melancholy, melancholy, dissatisfaction.
Playful mood, teasing.
Surprise, amazement, shock, fear.
Anger, resentment, rage.
And several more similar ones - all possible options for families and romantic unions.
But among the emoticons there are also those whose meaning can be interpreted ambiguously, or even be completely confusing:
This emoticon depicts a person sobbing in three - well, in two - streams, however, in the version for Apple devices, due to raised eyebrows and a mouth that is not distorted from sobs, he is often perceived as laughing to the point of tears. Be careful with them: you want to indicate grief to them, but they will misunderstand you.
This emoticon is intended to represent silence. Instead, he just scares you to death.
If everything is more or less clear with the evil devil (“angry as hell”), then the cheerful devil is somewhat puzzling. Most likely, he is not only furious, but also looking forward to dancing on your opponent’s grave. But you, perhaps, just wanted to show originality and an unusual smiley.
Despite the fact that the three wise monkeys did not see, hear or speak anything precisely because of their wisdom, these muzzles cover their eyes, mouth and ears in shame, confusion and shock.
A set of cat emoticons for those who consider ordinary koloboks to be insufficiently expressive and want to add sweetness to their emotions.
Instead of “hello” and “bye,” you can wave your hand.
Raised hands, a gesture of joyful greeting or jubilation.
The applause is both sincere and sarcastic.
If in this picture you see hands folded in a prayer gesture, then for you the emoji may mean “thank you” or “I beg you.” Well, if you see a high-five happening here, it means you are a very cheerful person.
A raised index finger can emphasize the importance of a message or express a request to interrupt the interlocutor with a question, or it can simply indicate a previous message in the chat.
Fingers crossed for luck.
For some it’s “stop”, but for others it’s “high five!”
No, it's not a truffle. Not even a truffle at all.
Ogre and Japanese goblin. Looks like someone is missing the usual devils.
Liar. His nose grows like Pinocchio's every time he lies.
These are eyes wide with amazement, and the darting eyes of a scoundrel, and even a lustful look. If someone sends you such an emoticon in a comment to a photo, you can be sure that the photo is good.
And it's just an eye, and it's watching you.
New moon and full moon. It seems like nothing special, but these emoticons have their fans who value them for their creepy facial expressions.
A very common girl in purple. Her gestures mean OK (arms above head), “no” (arms crossed), “hello” or “I know the answer” (arm raised up). This character has another pose that confuses many - . According to the official version, it symbolizes a help desk employee. Apparently, she is showing with her hand how to get to the city library.
Do you also see two tense faces here, presumably in an unfriendly mood? But they didn’t guess: according to Apple’s hints, this is an embarrassed face and a stubborn face. Who would have thought!
By the way, you can see hints for emoticons in the message window on if you open an emoji and hover over the emoticon you are interested in. Like this:
Another way to find out the meaning of an emoticon is to turn to emojipedia.org for help. On it you will find not only detailed interpretations of emoticons, but you can also see how the same emoticon looks on different platforms. Many unexpected discoveries await you.
Where are emoticons appropriate?
1. In informal friendly correspondence
Funny yellow faces are appropriate in a personal chat, where you share not so much information as your mood. With the help of emoticons, you will laugh at a joke, sympathize, and make faces at each other. This is where emotions belong.
2. When emotions splash over the edge and there are not enough words
Sometimes, when something very important happens in our lives, we are so overwhelmed with feelings that we are about to burst. Then we write an emotional post on Facebook or post a dazzling photo on Instagram and decorate it with a generous scattering of emoticons. Some people, of course, won’t like this, but what now, stifling all the bright sensations in yourself? The main thing is not to overuse such public displays of violent emotions: this will alienate subscribers and call into question your adequacy.
3. By agreement, to highlight messages in work correspondence
This is a very simple and convenient way to make important messages that require an urgent response visible. For example, great for these purposes. But you need to agree in advance which cases are considered urgent in your company and what emoticon you will use for this.
It’s important not to overdo it: if you have one emoticon for messages about emergency situations, a second for urgent issues, a third for important news, then soon all your work correspondence will turn into a New Year’s garland that no one looks at.
When is it better to do without emoticons?
1. In business correspondence
Work is no place for emotions. Here you are required to be calm, collected and professional. Even if you want to emphasize your friendliness or express concern about a situation, use , not emoticons, for these purposes.
2. When communicating with foreigners
This is especially true for gesture emoticons. For example, the person you wanted to express approval of will put an end to your good relationship with a person from Greece or Thailand. Of course, with this gesture you sent him to hell.
Therefore, if you are not confident in your deep knowledge of the peculiarities of the national culture of your interlocutor, do not take risks.
3. Oddly enough, when you discuss feelings and emotions
Feelings are a serious matter. If you are not just chatting, but revealing your soul or sharing something important, words will convey your feelings and experiences much more accurately than emoticons. “You are dearer to me than anyone in the world” means much more than ten hearts in a row. In the end, you only have one heart, so give it away.
Remember that emojis are a seasoning, not the main ingredient. You only need a small amount to add punch to your message.
Emoji language
Judging by the fact that today almost no personal correspondence is complete without emoticons, we can safely say that emoji have become an independent section of the language. Sometimes they even pretend to replace language: you can write an entire message using only emoticons. In the popular American TV show Ellen DeGeneres there is even a special section in which guests are invited to read a phrase where some of the words are replaced with emoji:
And here the name of the film is encrypted, which we invite you to guess.
By adding emojis at the end of your message, you can inject more meaning into your printed text. These funny faces, formed through punctuation marks, have long migrated into our everyday communication. Now we are ready to put them everywhere, because they help the recipient to better understand the ambiguity of our message. Emotions are not hidden behind printed text, but with the help of a couple of symbols you can significantly enhance the effect. However, not all people like to use funny faces, and users interpret messages differently. Let's try to figure out why this happens.
Extroverts use emoticons to manage their own image
A group of scientists set out to find out how emoticons influence the perception of the sender's personality, and what purpose people pursue when sending funny symbols to their friends. The researchers also had to find out what psychological factors are associated with this action. To do this, a group of students filled out thematic questionnaires, and then each of the participants carried out step-by-step text correspondence. 
Survey questions
It turned out that people who described themselves as being likable and likable were big fans of emoji on social media. Well, those who were less concerned about how others perceived them often wore sad faces.
Real world projection
We already know that different people use emojis differently, depending on their personality type. If in the real world we send our interlocutor a smile as a sign of approval, in the virtual world this function is performed by generally accepted symbolic combinations. Therefore, we can say that smiling and joyful faces are a projection of relationships in reality. 
This feature is more relevant for large social networks, where user interactions are more diverse and complex. People communicating through the media send funny faces to their interlocutor in the hope of making the right impression. Conversely, the more often you use a sad emoticon in messages, the less you care about public opinion. 
Some people use them often, while others don't like them.
The results of the study also revealed that some people enjoy using emoticons, while others do not use them at all. Of course, people practically avoid them in business correspondence. So, you won’t see a funny face in a letter from a business partner. But when it comes to informal communication, you can fully express your emotions. 
Participants reported that using emoticons made it easier for them to perceive the person communicating with them. That is why symbols are more often used by those who are not particularly strong in expressing feelings, desires and social intentions through the printed word. If a couple of words in the message are supplemented with an emoticon, everything becomes much clearer.
Findings may be useful later
This circumstance prompted scientists to conduct further research on the use of emoticons. Only now it is planned to make people suffering from autism the heroes of the experiment. For many of them, being in society is too difficult; they poorly express their own thoughts and have difficulty finding words. Probably, emoticons will help solve the problem. 
Does quantity matter?
In the final phase of the study, the task force asked volunteers to review participants' social media profiles. At the same time, short correspondence with strangers was recorded. Now we had to determine how other people perceived emoticons in incoming messages. The extroverts' assumptions were confirmed. It turns out that the more funny faces a person uses, the more favorable the impression he makes on others. Other people perceive the emoji lover as pleasant, conscientious, and open to new experiences. True, this opinion does not always coincide with how the user evaluates himself. Both in life and in the virtual world, a smile can make other people think that the other person is more pleasant. 
There is a clear pattern among extroverts and introverts. If the interlocutor is more open and “energized” to communicate, he uses funny faces more often. However, sometimes the excessive use of emoticons still irritates users, for example when symbols are put on purpose and without any purpose. This should lead to certain thoughts: good things should be in moderation. Therefore, communicate with friends on social media and use emoticons if you want to enhance your emotions.
