When referring to a person's personality and attitude, most definitions of
emo hold that an "emo person" is candid about their emotions, sensitive, shy, introverted, broken-hearted, glum, and often quiet.Emo personality is also often connected with writing poetry, which addresses
confusion,
depression,
loneliness, and
anger, all resulting from the world's inability to understand the author. Emo poetry uses a combination of any of: a highly emotional
tone,
stream of consciousness writing, a simple (
ABAB) or nonexistent
rhyme scheme, references to the flesh, especially the
heart, heavy use of dark or depressing adjectives, concern over the mutability of time and/or love, and disregard for punctuation, grammar, and/or spelling. Themes such as
life is pain are common.
[10]
Some definitions of emo hold that typical "emo persons" are likely to inflict
self-injury, most often by means of cutting, burning, or otherwise mutilating themselves.Some assert that it is
cool within the emo subculture to pretend to be suicidal and self-harm,or that participants self-harm purely for personal enjoyment.
Emos are also stereotyped to use depressing
Internet screen names that sometimes contain
straight edge X's, often using
ironic sloganry, a poetic sense or
cliché