Say it with an emoji
THE YOUTH HAS CREATED THE FIRST TRULY DIGITAL LANGUAGE
Who said languages are dying? We’re in the course of developing an entirely new one! Emojis, today, can be an entire conversation. They can even translate a piece of literature into a fun experience — once for the story itself, and double that as we try to crack the symbol-fueled narrative. Give Alice in Wonderland or Moby Dick a try in emoji form. Author Joe Hale has painstakingly accomplished the translation of Lewis Carroll’s work, and Herman Melville’s classic tale has been a crowdsourced effort.
Such is our love for this new hybrid form of communication that the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 was the emoji popularly known as ‘tears of joy’. In case you’re wondering, in 2017, it’s (quite fittingly) youthquake — a significant change arising because of young people.
There’s even an Emojipedia — an online database of emojis and their meanings. Now, we can finally figure out if the ‘folded hands’ emoji is meant for saying thanks or a virtual high five. Overseeing our visual vocabulary is the Unicode Consortium. This committee meets every year to add to the growing list of emojis proposed from people around the world. This year, the committee is contemplating reversible emojis — to help us say it like we truly mean it.
While pictures speak a thousand words, it’s the emojis that have brought us full circle. Early communication involved graphics and expressions; it was but natural for us to use technology to enhance these roots. Emojis go beyond basic images and embrace human expressions, phrases, cultural quirks, and much more. We’re in the era of a true digital language. “There’s an emoji for almost everything… facial expressions, hand gestures, food, animals and even vehicles! I use a variety of emojis. A funny picture garners the ‘face with tears’ emoji; a motivational text will prompt me to text a thumbs up. My absolute favourite emoji has to be the ‘thinking’ emoji. It is neutral; not an outburst of emotion or the lack of one,” shares Abbas Hasan, 16, a student at Dubai British School.
Emojis aren’t just representing new expressions each year; they’re also evolving into customisable versions. Genies is a new app that is based on an AI animation platform — this allows for real-time reactions to breaking news and daily conversations. It comes with preloaded body and facial expressions, outfits and props, and even allows interaction between these mini clones of your friends and you. Say hello to a virtual you, speaking a digital language, in a virtual world.
In the real world, of course, Dubai adds the Arabian twist to the digital proceedings. Yasmine Rasool and Eriko Varkey’s Halla Walla keyboard has more than 60 emojis and GIFs. These truly represent the Khaleeji culture and words that are commonplace in our part of the world — habibi, we make it happen. The GIFs bring out the nuances of the world we barely see represented in the global media. From corner shop shawarmas to the hand gesture saying shway shway to a simple yalla, you will soon be communicating with the exact picture you have in mind instead of searching for a close match online. The cherry on top of Dubai’s version of emojis is that it helps the rest of the world really get to know how we communicate. It bridges cultures and is a simple, yet brilliant, way to promote understanding and peace.
When Saudi teen Rayouf Alhumedhi proposed a hijab emoji, it caused a revolution in the world of emojis. While the widespread assumption is that emojis are primarily used by the youth, it couldn’t be further from the truth. So seriously do we take emojis that a mere burger representation caused an uproar — Google’s CEO tweeted that he’d drop everything to fix what came to be known as the “culinary blasphemy” that is the cheese between the patty and the bun at the bottom.
Marketing campaigns are also tracking emoji usage as a real-time ROI. People see emojis as a means to express themselves, so including emojis leads to increased visibility of brands without obvious advertisement.
Social movements are also being built on our ‘reactions’ — the Emoji Reaction Project is a Google Chrome extension that allows for action every time that we use an emoji for a negative reaction. The browser extension prompts us to donate to causes, get involved in local campaigns, and dial our government offices that are engaged with the cause at hand. A notable social campaign has been based around the ‘witness’ emoji — a speech bubble with a central eye. This has been used effectively in the face of online bullying by allowing us to support the person being intimidated.
Emojis are also being used by healthcare professionals. According to a study from the Mayo Clinic, people with cancer prefer to use technology to express their emotions. The lead author of the study, Dr Thompson, mentions that even those who have low health literacy understand emojis. This allows medical professionals to understand their patients’ quality of life. Similarly, when children find it hard to express their emotions, emojis can help in identifying complex feelings. “In a survey by TalkTalk Mobile, 72% of 18-25-year-olds claimed that they found it easier to communicate through emojis as compared to text,” adds Hasan.
We’ve certainly come a long way from the elementary emojis created by Shigetaka Kurita for the Japanese phone company, NTT DoCoMo in the ’90s. Today, emojis are a legitimate form of literacy in the legal context. Recently, a judge in New Zealand weighed in on the role of emoji in making a criminal threat and sentenced a man to eight months in jail for stalking.
On the fun side of the law, Dubai Police created a Guinness World Record by using 143 cars in the colours of the UAE flag to form a giant smile emoji — a long way from the simple colon, dash, and closing bracket that started it all.
Many perceive this to be a shocking and disastrous phenomenon, but I believe that emojis and text can co-exist in the 21st century form of communication. Emojis are a fun addition to our language rather than an undesirable replacement.” Abbas Hasan, 16, Dubai British School