What is the use and deeper meaning of emojis in our daily lives and how is it slowly replacing words?
With more and more people gaining access to the internet and social media, the use of emojis has rapidly increased as well. Emojis are visual images or symbols that are used to convey thoughts or feelings. We used to use punctuation and keyboard letters to create images such as “:-)”, but now it has evolved into something much more and is used by a vast majority of people all around the world instead of words
There is a variety of uses for different emojis such as to react to posts. For instance, a heart for Instagram, thumbs up for Facebook, a ghost for Snapchat and much more. It can also be used to start or end conversations without the use of words. Features such as reacting to someones message on Messenger or Instagram story is now available without replying with an actual worded message. According to World Emoji Day, 900 million emojis are being sent daily without any words. Not only is it used online, it has branched out into the real world. Menus in restaurants include emojis on the side to indicate whether or not something is spicy, vegan or vegetarian.
According to a study by TalkTalk Mobile, 80% of people in the UK use emojis frequently with 72% of people age 18-25 believing it is easier to communicate their feelings and messages through emojis rather than using words. Not only has emojis made its way into our daily online conversations, various similar variations have surfaced such as gifs, which are short looped animations that you can send.
However, although emojis are convenient for users to express their thoughts, they can be easily misinterpreted. One person could associate an idea with an emoji in which the other person does not. As there is no exact definition of each emoji, the ambiguity they bring can often cause more misunderstandings. In addition, people do not have the need to develop their written skills and express themselves through words as emojis are available for use. Including emojis in messages may also not be the best choice for more formal conversations.
On the other hand, emojis with a universal meaning such as a smiley face can provide a personal touch to a message instead of a plain text message that could give off a cold feeling to the person receiving the message. They can also provide reassurance or reinforcement to a message previously sent. Since important factors in communicating with others such as body language, tone and facial expressions are absent in words only, emojis are able to bring a part of that back in online conversations.
Although emojis have limitations and do not have the ability to express deeper and more complicated ideas compared to words, they are a great and fun way to communicate with others. What do you think about the use of emojis? Will they become something even more meaningful in the future?
References:
Emojipedia. (n.d.). Emoji Statistics. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://worldemojiday.com/statistics/
Faull, J. (2015, May 19). NEWS ‘Emoji’ the fastest growing language. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/05/19/emoji-fastest-growing-language-80-brits-now-using-symbols-communicate
Oliveira, J. (2017, August 16). Emoji, the New Global Language? Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/emoji-the-new-global-language/
