Deconstructing with Della: Emoji
July 24, 2017
World Emoji Day was last Monday, July 17. Yes, there is a World Emoji Day, an emojipedia and there are self proclaimed emoji experts. Apple announced some new emoji's on the day - woman with headscarf and a breast feeding woman. There is also a sandwich, zombie, zebra and smiley face spewing green stuff, among others.
Emoji's are so commonplace now, we hardly think twice before adding a heart, thumbs up or smiley face with a halo to our messages. Fascinating how quickly our need for communication shorthand evolves. When I was visiting the Metropolitan museum in New York a few weeks ago, I was mesmerized by the Egyptian hieroglyphs. I felt like I could understand what they were communicating and did not need words. The visuals created the story. Same goes for emojiland.
Emoji's can be interpreted so many ways and that is what is cool about this form of communication. If I send a heart to you when you are sad, it helps me avoid saying the wrong thing and just shows I care. No unintended judgement or commentary required. Purely an emotional feeling.
I know many of my friends and communication colleagues lament the lack of words in our world today. However, if using emojis helps people express their feelings, why not? I rarely see inappropriate emojis as the interpretation is up to the recipient. I sent my hairdresser a purple devil emoji every time someone complimented my purple hair. I did not realize there were two devils, one smiling and one frowning. She thought it was reflective of the comments. It was reflective of my need for reading glasses. I think that has been my only emoji mishap.
Sometimes people put so many emojis with a message, I lose the point. Much like people who pontificate in a meeting. But, perhaps again that might be my short attention span. I don't want to work that hard to figure out all the emojis.
To deconstruct, emojis are just another form of communication. We should have fun with them and our communication. Anything that helps us connect, works for me.
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