emojis-101
The Semiotics of Emojis
In which I research the evolution of emoji use since their beginning. For my independent learning project.
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Emoji Skater Skirts - $11
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me: *drawing*
me: i have no idea what the fuck i’m doing
me: *finishes drawing*
person: woah how did you do that
me: i have no fucking idea
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ᕙ( * •̀ ᗜ •́ * )人( * •̀ ᗜ •́ * )ᕗ
an emoji for when u and ur best friend are ready to take on the world
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Canadians Love Poop, Americans Love Pizza: How Emojis Fare Worldwide
I knew sooner or later NPR would want to talk about emoji. In this episode of All Tech Considered, they talk about the analysis of emoji use around the world by Swiftkey company (here’s the actual report if you want to see it).
Some highlights from the article (and study):
Canadians love poop.
Americans love pizza.
French love hearts, and love, probably.
Spanish-speaking Americans use sad faces the most. Not such a great highlight.
Here are some visuals from the report to give you a better idea of how differently emoji usage is by country:
They weren’t kidding about the poop.
I cannot speak for Americans on this one because I rarely use any of these. I’m just surprised the 😂 emoji isn’t up there.
Either the French are really romantic or they really care about cardiovascular health, or both.
I’m even more surprised Portuguese speakers use the 😂 more than Americans.
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Emoji Updates
I just updated the iOS on my iphone (I know, late to the party), which means I got the new multicultural emoji. It’s really cool. The thing is, I don’t like the fact that the defaults have cartoonish yellow skin. It doesn’t look good at all in my opinion and makes the people emoji less human and distinct from the smiley emoji, which I don’t like. Good thing I can switch to other colors.
You see this ish? You see how similar they are? It’s so freakin’ weird.
Edit: After letting the new emoji marinate in my... mind I guess, I’m okay with the yellow emoji. Having them be the default kind of resolves the issue of representation of race (white is no longer the default. Progress!). I’m still happy to have more choices anyway.
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Emoji & LGBTQ+ Visibility
Going back to semiotics, it’s important to note that the meanings users make from emoji are guided by ideologies and traditions of the culture they come from. That’s why people (Americans) get confused by the descriptions given to some characters (by the Japanese).
Description: Person bowing deeply, and Americans are like WTF is this guy doing??? Getting a massage?
I was reminded of this when I was reading this article from the Emoji foundation. The author had been working on an emoji dictionary by pooling in interpretations from people around the world. When it came to these two emoji:
Two girls holding hands and two boys holding hands
there came some weird and honestly, offensive connotations from people. While the girls are seen as friendly and sisterly, the boys are seen as gay, but like the girly kind of gay(?).
See what I mean? Source: Emoji Dictionary
So these definitions tell me that we live in a culture that is not quite accepting of males loving each other, at least not as much as two girls loving each other. On the other hand, society does not even see two girls as potentially homosexual/homoromantic. Why? I figure the two girls are not seen as in love with each other because they look feminine. Lesbians are typically portrayed and hyper-butch in media, yet femme is also a thing, you know? As for the boys, I don’t get it. They’re literally just a graphic and people think their faggots. I understand that the meanings of emoji are in the power of the users, but seriously? This is what people think two boys holding hands means? It’s appalling but not that surprising.
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Meta: My Project
Yesterday I presented my project (this blog, kind of, not directly) for my class yesterday. It turns out I’ve gotten really into reading and writing about emoji and there is so much more out there I want to learn. I may not update during this summer but I’ll keep the blog up just in case I want to revisit.
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Emoji is racist to anything non-Japanese
Pictured above: Emoji Dick: a Translation of Moby Dick
Okay, not really. Actually this isn’t even what this post is going to be about. But I’ll get to it later.
The real question is: Could emoji ever be a language? Which is a question posed by an article on Vice last year.
Emoji use has become so rampant at such a fast pace, it’s no surprise that people are talking about its emergence as a new language.
According to article, some believe that it’s never going to happen because 1. It would be impossible to practically have a system of emoji characters for every word, things, feelings, etc. 2. People rely on such few emoji characters, many are ignored (the article cites Emojitracker as evidence of this) 3. There are no grammar rules incorporated into the system (or really any rules for that matter). 4. It’s difficult to convey certain ideas and meanings with emoji without text... at least for now.
Speaking of lack of emoji, the article also mentioned briefly how people have expressed concern over the overwhelming amount of Japanese food emoji and omission of other food. Where are the hotdogs???
The article finally states that no, no one can exactly speak fluent emoji and that the system is mostly used to enhance whatever language we are speaking in already. Yet there is this perk that emoji meanings are nearly universal, it seems. This is just a hypothesis, however.
I agree with that the article had said about the potential of emoji being recognized as a language along with the fact that emoji is not really that taken that seriously anyway and I doubt anyone with dispense the energy to come up with a grammar system for it in the near future. But you never know (see: World Translation Foundation).
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Katy Perry - Roar (Lyric Video)
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Emoji Use Might Make You Feminine
A Facebook friend posted this article from The New York Times. “Should Grown Men Use Emoji? This should be an interesting question to answer.
So first, it’s recommended you read the article, but if you didn’t here’s a TL;DR:
Emoji may be weird for guys to use since they look like stickers teen girls would put on their notebooks.
It may also be weird for grown up guys to use since teens mostly use them.
“There should be male ways to use emoji.” John McWhorter from Columbia University, because males should learn how to express themselves better to women.
Moderation is key, according to a Reddit user.
Emoji should be used in the right context (i.e. not serious situations)
But what really stuck out to me was at the end when Bruce Feirstein says regarding men using emoji, “I don’t know if, in the year 2015, defining what a ‘real man’ would do or not do is relevant, because the culture has changed. I don’t know if you can make these grand pronouncements anymore.”
He’s right in some way. The definition of a REAL MAN(TM) is changing. But humans still like to categorize things as masculine or feminine.
So, are emoji feminine? In my opinion, maybe, if feminine means colorful, youthful, and ubiquitous.
Can grown men use them? Short answer: who cares. Longer answer: grown men can do things that are considered “feminine” and they have been for a while (see: manscaping). This is the world we live in now. In other news, women can also wear pants.
But I understand that the question asked is Should grown men use them? In the end, it depends on the context. I don’t really see emoji as having some benefits of facilitating communication, especially between heterosexual men and women courting each other, because they’re not that deep. Emoji shouldn’t be used to console someone who’s grandmother just passed. Emoji are fun and carefree and I think they should stay that way for a while. Until the president starts using them in his State of The Union-s.
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