Understanding the emoji

of solidarity
When disaster or tragedy strikes, people far away are touched and want to help – but really can’t
do much. Often the first thing distant observers do is take to social media to send their thoughts,
prayers, support and good wishes for survivors, rescue workers and others affected. And a lot of
times, those online posts involve emoji – as well as hashtags in the poster’s own language, and
other languages.

First created in the late 1990s, emoji became prominent worldwide in 2015 when the
Oxford Dictionaries named the “face with tears of joy” emoji 😂 the word of the year.
Social media posts often use emoji because they are so expressive in so few characters.
Combining emoji with text can be a very efficient way to communicate.

Our research analyzed emoji and their accompanying text to identify how people used
emoji to express solidarity on Twitter during two crises, the November 13, 2015, terror
attacks in Paris and the destruction wrought by Hurricane Irma in August and
September 2017. The existing research on emoji use hasn’t looked at how people
communicate support on social media. We were able to quickly see that rather than
depictions of the person having an emotional reaction, most tweets expressing solidarity
included non-face emoji.

Showing support
Non-face emoji can help clarify readers’ perceptions of the message. As the Paris attacks
unfolded, the most common support emoji were flags of different countries like Russia
🇷🇺, the U.K. 🇬🇧 and the U.S. 🇺🇸, alongside the French flag 🇫🇷. These, we know, were from
people in other countries sending their thoughts to those affected in France. Other
related emoji didn’t express solidarity, but conveyed what was happening: Tweets
around the Paris attacks used 🔴 and ☎️ to indicate danger and information.

For the Hurricane Irma event, solidarity was expressed with the help of different kinds
of hearts, like ❤️ and 💙. A unique characteristic of solidarity during Hurricane Irma
event expressed concern for the animals affected, like 🐈, 🐕 and 🐷. Flag emoji were not
as prominent as during the Paris attacks.

Co-occurring emoji
Often people use emoji paired together. During the Paris attacks, for instance, people
sending love to France posted the 🇫🇷❤️ pair. During Hurricane Irma, people sending
thoughts and love posted the 🙏❤️ emoji from afar. People in regions affected by the
storm often posted the 💨😳 pair.
By contrast, during Hurricane Irma, the most commonly used emoji pairs in tweets
from from outside the storm’s area included the sorrow emoji 😔 with either the flag of
Antigua and Barbuda 🇦🇬 or Cuba 🇨🇺.

As both events unfolded, tweets carried a steady stream of positive emoji, like 💓 and 💗,
which continued into the days afterward. Negative emoji, like 😔 and 💔, on the other
hand, peaked at key points – as Hurricane Irma moved closer to the U.S., and during the
night of the Paris attacks – but disappeared almost completely afterward.

Documenting how people use emoji to communicate about large disasters offers a new
window into human behavior, including how it evolves over time and across the world.
In the future, we hope to explore emoji use in connection with collective social
movements like #MeTooand #MarchForOurLives.

Source : https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-emoji-of-solidarity-99711

PH is world leader in social media usage

The Philippines again topped the world in terms of social media usage as the number
of internet users in the country hit 67 million people, according to a new report by
London, United Kingdom-based consultancy We Are Social.
In its Digital 2018 report, which compiled data from various third-party sources, We
Are Social said Filipinos spent an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes a day on social
media sites, mainly on Facebook.
t said there were 67 million accounts on Facebook in the Philippines, matching the
total number of internet users in the county. Another 10 million Filipinos were on
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
The Philippines was ahead in terms of social media usage in a list of 40 countries.
Least interested in social media were the Japanese, who spent an average of 48
minutes a day updating their Facebook status and posting pictures on Instagram.
Other heavy social media users were Brazil (3 hours and 39 minutes), Indonesia (3
hours and 23 minutes), Thailand (3 hours and 10 minutes) and Argentina (3 hours and
9 minutes). The Philippines was also No. 1 in the world in terms of social media usage
in 2017.
Overall, Filipinos spent 9 hours and 29 minutes a day on the internet, based on the
2018 report. This was the second-highest in the world after Thailand at 9 hours and 38
minutes.
Apart from social media, Filipinos used the internet to watch videos on YouTube and
access news sites.
The high usage comes as Filipinos still lagged behind most regional neighbors and the
global average in terms of internet speed.
Using data from Ookla as of November 2017, the report said the country’s average
fixed-internet speed stood at 15.2 megabits per second, below the global average of
40.7 Mbps while mobile internet speed clocked in at 13.5 Mbps, below the global
average of 21.3 Mbps.
Fixed-internet in the country had improved from over 4 Mbps the previous year while
mobile internet went down slightly from 13.8 Mpbs last year, according to the Digital
in its 2017 report
Overall, internet usage in the Philippines remains on a growth trajectory with seven
million users added over last year. Internet penetration now stands at around 63
percent out of 105.7 million Filipinos. Moreover, more than half of the population, or
61 million, access the internet using a mobile device, the report showed.
E-commerce is another big growth area. Filipino consumers as of end-2017 spent
around $2.16 billion shopping online. Bulk of these, or $642.6 million, were for travel
expenses while $543 million went to electronic goods. The smallest amount was for
digital music, at $12.9 million.

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