Social anxiety and emoji use: gender differences and the role of loneliness in digital communication among college students.

ABSTRACT: Emojis are one of the fastest growing forms of digital communication. However, sending texts can provoke distress. This may be particularly true for the 40% of emerging adults with clinically significant symptoms of social anxiety who often suffer from loneliness and altered communication styles. We hypothesize that to mitigate distress, higher levels of social anxiety and loneliness may be associated with greater emoji use when sending texts that could be interpreted negatively. We also hypothesize the relation would be especially pronounced in females given higher rates of social anxiety and emoji use in general. College students (N = 191, 64% female, 18-24 years of age) read a series of vignettes with ambiguous texts and were asked to imagine sending them to a friend. They were i

SUBMITTER: Bendl AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12588911 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature