Kisses, emoji and how we use them

Back in 2011, one of my students did a final year research project comparing the instant messaging language of her age group (21-23) and her younger brothers' age group (15-16). One of the key differences she found was that many of the younger group were putting kisses ( x ) in places other than the end of a conversation. Many were appearing at the end of every turn in a conversation and some even within turns. The older group, on the other hand, were only putting kisses at the end of a conversation when they signed off. This led me to look in more detail at the way people (especially in the UK) use the "orthographic kiss". In 2014 another student did a survey asking people a range of questions about how, when and why they use the x , in their texts, emails and instant messaging. Last year (2021) I repeated that survey to see how people's views on their (and others') use had changed. In this blog, I will post the various findings of these three studies, looking at...