Using emojis can bridge the gap between face-to-face and digital communication, according to online resources
BYU–Hawaii Assistant Professor Mason Kamana Allred advised people to be ready to make mistakes when communicating using emojis. “Especially in humor, which does not translate well cross-culturally, it’s great training to tell people if a certain message comes off differently,” he added.
“It is also best to be aware that communicating with emojis is not always going to be a one-to-one perfect communication and may vary by generation and by gender,” he added.
He shared one experience he had conversing through text with one of his children. “I usually figure out what my kids mean, but every once in a while, I can tell that there is a depth to it. My daughter sent me a painting of nails emoji. She explained that it meant confidence and self-care,” he added.
A brief history of emojis
The first emoji was popularized by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita in 1999 who worked for a developmental team for an early internet platform from DOCOMO, Japan’s main mobile carrier, says Wired.
Britannica says Kurita’s emoji was inspired by manga art and kanji characters. “Apple hid an emoji keyboard on the first iPhone in 2007 to attract more Japanese customers, but North Americans had discovered the keyboard, and now emojis are available and are translated across platforms thanks to Unicode,” adds the site.
Unicode is a universal encoding standard that assigns a unique code to every character, symbol and script used in writing systems around the world, says Geeks For Geeks. “Text is consistently represented and understood across programs, devices and platforms because of Unicode,” adds the site.
In 2017, CNBC wrote an article about a person who makes a living decoding emojis. According to the site, businesses started reaching out to specialists like Keith Broni from Ireland. “He is the first person in the world with the Emoji Translator job title.” adds CNBC. Specialists like Broni work for London-based Today Translations that provides translation services internationally, says CNBC.
In an email response he wrote for the site, Broni explained emojis allow its users to show the emotional context of a statement. “Emojis allow us to imbue digital messages with the non-verbal cues inherent to face-to- face interaction. Normally we’d use words but through emojis, we can convey vocal tone, pose or gesture rather than just words,” adds the site.
Using emojis in conversation showcases one’s personality, said Jan Jeush Aries, a junior majoring in elementary education from the Philippines.
She shared her five most used emojis on Facebook Messenger. “I use the almost laughing emoji without tears, the red heart emoji, the thumbs up emoji, the celebration emoji and the shy face emoji.”
She said she thinks she uses them to show her personality and how she would react in real life if the conversation she was having were face-to-face.
Emoticons vs. emojis
According to Britannica, emoticons are letters, punctuation marks, and numbers used to create pictorial icons that show a sentiment or emotion while emojis are pictographs of faces, objects and symbols. The biggest difference between emoticons and emojis is in how they look. ScienceDirect says the absence of emoticons in a text leads to misunderstanding between sender and receiver. “Using a smiling emoticon in text was rated as more positive than one without an emoticon present,” adds the site.
Edward Salazar, a sophomore majoring in business management from the Philippines, said the bad thing about emoji use is the confusion it gives to both ends of a conversation. “Because everything is online, a level of professionalism should be considered,” he added.
Emojis function like emoticons but show more human emotional expressions, says ScienceDirect. “Emojis are used for modifying tone, reducing interpersonal distance and formality, entertainment, and maintaining relationships,” the site says.
Salazar shared the first emoji he sent to someone was the ‘thumbs-up’ emoji. “I remember having a conversation with someone in one of the group chats I was part of on Facebook messenger. Instead of replying ‘Yes’ to agree with that person, I sent the emoji instead,” he added.
Using the thumbs-up emoji varies depending on the context of the conversation, explained Salazar. “It all comes down to who you are talking to and what you’re talking about,” he added.
The times have changed
Peter Suciu, a Michigan-based writer from Forbes, says a symbol can take on a meaning that is almost essentially a code of sorts to people. “Millennials were the first smartphone generation and Gen X popularized Internet use and flip phones. As these generations grew with technology, emojis were already a part of culture they embraced and helped evolve,” said Suciu.
Suciu added, “In the same way, Generation Z took the baton of the common way of using those emojis, by the two previous generations, raising it to another level, where the mixture of uses is what enriches communication.”
Allred said he tended to push back against using emojis too much. “I thought I was doing better if I said more. The truth is in a lot of situations, emojis are actually more effective showing more emotional presence.”
Allred, identifying himself as part of Generation Y or Millennials, shared his most used app on his phone for communicating is the text messaging app. “I tend to interact mostly with people who are close to me. I don’t interact or get a lot of messages from people I don’t know,” he added.
