World Emoji Day: Bringing emotions back to daily conversation
Prehistoric cave dwellers did it. Egyptians with hieroglyphs did it. Now, with emojis, we do it. It's this generation's KISS theory i.e. 'keeping it short and sweet'. Be it to convey emotions, agreement or disagreement, or just to keep things moving. Today is the fourth annual World Emoji Day. It's time to thank these little tykes that make life easier. Here's all about it.
Stop screaming murder
Purists say emojis are killing the written words. That is not the case. Emojis provide a way to express or to emphasize on what we are trying to convey. Nowadays, physical human interaction has become minimum, thanks to digital communication. We are turning distant from each other. Emojis have been successful in bridging this gap of human disconnect.
That added push
Emojis are theatrical, funny, witty, diverse and sometimes, downright silly. The range is diverse and we get to mix and match. Emojis work on a psychological level, adding emphasis to what you have already said. An "I love you", with a heart emoji added to it, is visually stimulating. Emojis are not undermining the written words. They are conveying it across more efficiently.
It was meant to be funny, I swear
Reportedly, we use 43 of our facial muscles to convey more than 10,000 unique facial expressions. But when we are writing a purely textual message, we take away all the emotional content out of it. Chances are that it can be read in a very different context than what we wanted to convey. However, when we add an emoji, we provide a visual cue.
Don't misunderstand it, the modern day crisis
Shigeta Kurita, who created modern day emojis, explains the crisis aptly, "You don't know why someone sent you a certain message. A person becomes wary or even angry because of it. These were experiences I myself and the mass community shared. We thought emoji would alleviate this sort of problem. That's why we made it." The sole purpose was to solve miscommunication among people.
Emoji-fying the mundane conversations
When we bring things down to brass tacks, it boils down to a simple notion - thanks to emojis, we express ourselves a little bit better. The messages have less chance of getting misinterpreted and it helps in making a well-rounded conversation. After saying everything, stay away from the eggplant emoji and go easy on the winking emoji. Hope you know what I mean.
