Oldsters’ frowny face for emojis

Gen Xers and baby boomers are giving emojis a thumbs-down, saying they understand the meanings behind the digital icons, but they are not confident in their ability to use them, a study from the University of Ottawa has found.

“We found that older users are less likely to use emojis, use fewer emojis . . . and feel less comfortable in their ability to interpret emojis,” said the study’s lead author, Isabelle Boutet.

The research was published this month in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

The study noted that the emoji movement gained steam in the US in 2011 when Apple added an official emoji keyboard to iOS. Now, 700 million emojis are used daily on Facebook, and half the comments on Instagram feature an emoji, statistics show.

The Ottawa team investigated eight emojis in particular — three centered on happiness, two on sadness, two on surprise and one on anger, SWNS reports.

Some 240 adults between the ages of 18 and 80 were shown each emoji in a random order.

The study revealed that the most difficult emoji for older adults to interpret was the surprised “wide eyes” emoji, which is a yellow blushing face looking speechless with its eyes wide open and eyebrows raised.

“This pattern of results leads us to conclude that older users have the motivation and ability to utilize emojis, but they lack the confidence and general technology expertise needed to adapt to this mode of communication,” added Boutet, an associate professor in the School of Psychology.

“Software developers could consider modifying existing emoji menus to facilitate their use across generations by, for example, making unambiguous emojis which older users are able to interpret more easily,” Boutet said.