인스턴트 메신저 이모티콘 사용에 있어 20대와 장년층의 특성비교연구 - 카카오톡 이모티콘을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Currently, Instant Messenger among mobile SNS applications has the characteristics of human relationship such as expressing user’s emotions & opinions and of forming/keeping relationship with others. Accordingly, this thesis found the need for researching emotion-expressing/conveying e-moticons used by Kakao Talk, one of the most used instant messengers in Korea . Since use characteristics, situations and contexts of e-moticons may differ by age, it compared those of young generation in their 20s with those of the older generation in their 50s to see how they express their emotions and based upon the difference of their use characteristics, it studied how e-moticons express their behaviors and emotions. For this purpose, the foregoing researches were looked into and then focus group interviews were done targeting those in their 20s and 50s. Finally, a questionnaire was made based on the basic 292 e-moticons excluding Kakao Talk’s commercially used ones to conduct a survey in the form of one-on-one in-depth interview. Result of this study found that those in their 20s prefer behavior-expressing e-moticons, as expanded expression, specifically depicting user’s situation to the other party yet providing concise stories during mobile conversation but those in their 50s use them for the purpose of simple expression. In this regard, the current researcher has reached the conclusion that behavioral/story-telling e-moticons expressing various life styles should be developed for those in their 20s while e-moticons whose meaning is clearly interpreted should be developed for those in their 50s. In a try to differentiate itself from existing studies, the current study comparatively researched what differing characteristics are shown from the user’s side among those in their 20s and 50s in relation to Kakao Talk e-moticons, one of major mobile messengers and so this study has significance in providing important implications, from the perspective of commercial use, on what should be considered among by-age characteristics when e-moticons are developed.