The impact of emoticons on women’s friendships on Facebook

This study investigated the use of emoticons in computer-mediated communication, focusing on their impact on female friendships in Facebook communication. While demographic factors such as age and gender impact emoticon usage, empirical evidence regarding their effects on female friendships remained scarce. The present study investigated the influence of emoticons on interpersonal relationships among female acquaintances. It adopted a quantitative research method with a sample of 495 actively engaged female expatriates from the United Arab Emirates on Facebook and analyzed the data with multivariate generalized linear model analysis. The results indicated a significant predictive influence of emoticons on friendship dimensions like closeness, safety, and security. The study also found a positive correlation between emoticons use and the overall quality of female friendships offering valuable insights about female friendships in the field of online communication.