Do We Need Emojis?

Discussion in 'Education & Personal Growth' started by Iravati, Aug 16, 2017.

  1. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    I am sparse with emojis. I use them only in exceptional cases when I intend to make it explicit that I am only teasing. Mostly I skip them.

    Here's a recent article: why you need emoji that expounds their usage which has become a convention sought in modern communication. For the hurried, below two paragraphs are of interest.

    The other dimension of nonverbal communication involves paralinguistic features of speech, first studied by American linguist George Trager. Paralinguistics is the study of the features that accompany spoken language, a consequence of its medium of production; this can influence, and even alter, the meaning of the words we utter. Paralinguistic features, as intimated above, range from vocal signals, such as laughter, to speech prosody. Prosodic features include rhythm, relative volume, pitch, intonation, and the pitch range the voice operates in—higher for women, on average, than men.

    As a significant proportion of the meaning of a communicative message in social interaction derives from nonverbal cues, it stands to reason that text alone—the linguistic mode—conveys only a relatively small proportion of the information we have access to, in spoken exchanges. There’s a gaping lacuna in what digital talk, alone, can convey. Much of the information relating to emotional expression, projection of personality, the nuancing that accompanies words in spoken language, is missing. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that we can all, on occasion, fall foul of the angry jerk phenomenon: A rushed email, or a casual SMS can sound detached, snotty, or worse. It lacks the nonverbal cues that fill out and complement our face-to-face interactions. As the usual resources that allow our empathy to get off the ground are missing, we’re at an immediate disadvantage in trying to put ourselves in the sender’s shoes.


    I have mixed feelings about emojis. On one hand, they are expressive, but, on the other hand they are juvenile. That "A rushed email, or a casual SMS can sound detached, snotty, or worse" has happened several times with me because I rarely use bulk emojis.

    What do you think? Are emojis the stand-in for that paralanguage and emphatically fill the gaps inherent in textual mode of communication. Or, do they rob us of our latent self-expression?

    What is the role of emojis in digital communication?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 16, 2017
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  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    If I use Emojis, I would be telling people a pack of lies! If I say I :roflmao:, I am just trying to make you believe that I have an athletic figure. If I lie on the floor, two strong guys will be required to lift me back to my feet. I am not much of a laughing man. If I tell you that :tearsofjoy:, it could only mean that I had bitten a green chilly! I do this :treadmill: only to check the condition of my heart annually. :icon_pc: This my single finger and one eyed typing. :thinking: This is my usual posture after my morning bath. Where did all my hair go?
     
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  3. Sandycandy

    Sandycandy IL Hall of Fame

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    :clap2::clapclap::lol::worship2::thumbup::tearsofjoy:


     
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  4. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    @Cheeniya

    I haven't laughed so loud at any IL response.

    That single-fingered and one-eyed typing emoji is the highlight of your sense of humour.

    This question popped up in my mind because of our conversations in QPQ. We both hardly use emojis. I was stunned that we carried on a lively banter with no emojis. But now I realize how much more humour you can knock up with your emoji-ful response.

    Seriously, I haven't laughed so much at any post till date.

    Should that freshly doused head also be scratched with one finger? I usually hit my head with my palm so that the jam of confusion in my head is cleared.
     
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  5. BhumiBabe

    BhumiBabe Platinum IL'ite

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    To preface, I really enjoy the written word. In fact, I hardly use acronyms, other than bro, MIL, etc, in my communications. Yet, I actually believe emojis have a very important place in communication nowadays. Texting and sending emails from your phone have become normal, but it also comes with a price. We cannot be verbose and exact about our meanings when we are trying to type on our mobile device. There are those who simply don't know how to swipe quickly, but then there are others, like me, whose fast typing causes hand cramps. Anyway, I digress. In this day and age, it's about reaching your audience. Our audience does not have the patience to read an essay, they want something quick and straight to the point. And that same audience might read our words incorrectly, and may perceive the meaning of our concise sentences incorrectly. In such cases, an emoji would simply clarify the intention behind my words.
     
  6. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I don't know about "need" emojis or not, but between choosing "expressive" and "juvenile" to describe them, I lean towards juvenile. They are necessary evils along the lines of FB and whatsapp. You use them as without them you will be out of the loop in many places. I do not use emoji's in emails unless it is a rapid back and forth happening via email as one party does not have access to chat. I am never happy with the choice of emoji's on my phone or anywhere. Though, there are a few that appeal to me and I think are well-designed. The "shakehead" one and the "cool" one.

    As some kind of a measure, I don't recall ever seeing an emoji in Ansuya's posts, in any section of IL.

    If I am writing a post that I care about, or one that I will come back and read for whatever reason, I will most likely not use emoji's. I use the colon and right parenthesis for a smiley often. Not sure if that is half an emoji or an emoji.

    Emojis do rob us of our latent self-expression though they might help by reducing the time one needs to spend on composing a piece of text.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  7. Nonya

    Nonya Platinum IL'ite

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    I am not sure about the loss of self-expression in emoji's; however, it is indeed a time saving shorthand. Has been so for eons. The chinese, and the japanese use it, and until a few centuries ago, the Koreans also used brush-stroke emoji's a lot in their language.
    A man (running with the rice field on his head )or a woman (keeping knees together, even when she walks )have been in the pictograph writings for centuries. Stand alone groups of syllable sounds alone cannot convey the right message in the east; they need a picture, and a context. Here is the kan-ji for umbrella:

    Rain:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2017
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  8. kaniths

    kaniths IL Hall of Fame

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    On a lighter note, they do help preserve self expression Rih Ji. Say in a WhatsApp group. If my dh enjoys a husband-wife joke, he can use a :tearsofjoy: smiley, 'express himself' and escape my clutches easy rather responding loud, "ha ha so true" and earn a sucker punch! :D Win Win I say! ;)
     
  9. Iravati

    Iravati Platinum IL'ite

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    I agree. We are texting more than ever. We intend to offset the loss of clarity sparked by concision and rapidity of speech by projecting tone and body language as pictorial gestures to make our connect feel fuller.

    Ansuya and Cheeniya hardly use emojis. Yet, they build up impeccable humour. That said, Cheeniya's artsy feedback to this thread has made me rethink if I should be more generous in my emoji usage.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2017
  10. Amica

    Amica IL Hall of Fame

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    A picture is worth a thousand words. [​IMG]
    .
     

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