Tags
I borrowed The Emoji Code: the Linguistics Behind Smiley Faces and Scaredy Cats by Vyvyan Evans and after 71 pages decided to not finish it. This is not because it is a bad book, it has lots of fascinating stuff, but I got bored. I lost interest in the linguistics and all the details about what does and does not constitute a language and whether emojis meet the requirements or ever could.
I did learn some great things about the history of Emoji. It seems like they have been around forever, right? But emojis did not become standard on the Apple keyboard until 2011, 2012 on Instagram and 2013 on Android. Pretty crazy!
Official Emoji is programmed in Unicode and and all the emojis we are familiar with on our phones and Google and Facebook, are controlled by a small group of multinational corporations that made up Unicode. For a new emoji to come into being it must go through a long and arduous vetting process. Yes, you can get nonstandard emojis and on Facebook you also have stickers, but the standard emojis are tightly controlled.
In spite of the control, each platform is allowed to make their emoji look a little different. Evans uses the gun emoji as an example. Microsoft’s gun is a revolver, Android’s is a pistol, and Apple’s is a water pistol. Each one of course has a different meaning. If you send a gun emoji to a friend on a hot day on your iPhone thinking you are having fun with a water pistol and your friend has an Android phone and gets a pistol that uses bullets instead of water, you could be saying something you did not intend.
In fact, a seventeen-year-old in New York who posted a gun emoji pointed at a police officer on his Facebook page in 2015 was arrested for making terroristic threats. Taken within the context of other Facebook posts he made, there was no threat made. In another incident, a school in Colorado was evacuated after the school received an email that contained a gun, a bomb and a knife emoji. There were other emojis in the email like chickens. It turned out to be sent by mistake by an eight-year-old girl.
Obviously emojis are serious business. They do not, however constitute a language. There is no grammar, for instance. This does not mean that one day it cannot be a language. But for now we use emojis to substitute for some words and to make clear the emotion behind the text of our digital communications. A smiley face, a sad face, or a rolling eyes face can make all the difference in how something might be understood. So instead of watching our “p’s and q’s” I guess we need to watch our smiles and frowns, hearts and hand gestures. So much to keep track of!
Like I said, I didn’t finish the book because it is bad, clearly it is interesting, but I lost interest. I wanted to tell you about it though in case it might be up your alley.
Hmmm, sounds like it tries to explore something beyond what seems pretty obvious or, at least, beyond what would interest ordinary mortals. Like you, though, I’d be interested in the history of emojis and, more, in the impact of their use.
LikeLike
whisperinggums, it does try to go beyond the obvious but it would probably be most interesting for folks who are into linguistics and language usage rather than a very general reader with a modest curiosity 🙂
LikeLike
Yes that’s what it sounds like, and linguistics can get very technical very quickly I’ve noticed.
LikeLike
It sure can!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree that this may be an interesting path to explore more for many, but maybe not me! But the stories of how Emojis have impacted from New York and Colorado is kind of worrisome! I guess I will stick to my standard 🙂 and be done! 😉
LikeLike
cirtnecce, I liked the history of emojis bit but when it started getting hard into linguistics I just couldn’t go any further. I had not heard about the NY or CO incidents, definitely a worrisome turn. I’m not a very adventurous emoji user either!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“o instead of watching our “p’s and q’s” I guess we need to watch our smiles and frowns, hearts and hand gestures. So much to keep track of!” True. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know very little about linguistics. The tiny bit that I know, picked up from a few articles that I have read and by a few radio interviews of linguists that I have heard seems fascinating.
The history and use of emojis also sounds interesting. However, I can see how this particular book could get dull.
LikeLike
Brian Joseph, aren’t you a Stephen Pinker fan? He’s got a couple interesting books on linguistics as does Noam Chomsky. I had to take a linguistics class in college because I was an English major and it was required. Can’t say it was among my favorites. the bit about the history of emojis was interesting and I liked reading about what people do with them and what they mean, but the book went into more detail than I was interested in!
LikeLike
It sounds a bit interesting, but I would probably not read it to the end, either.
LikeLike
Jeane, yes, it began well but then as it got more detailed I lost interest.
LikeLike
I heard the audience struggled with the movie too, Stefanie. I might be wrong. But the book sounds like it would dampen the joy of using the emoji for me. I am happy with using the classic ones. Thank you for letting us know about this one, Stefanie. 🙂 And yaay to Chicken-emojis. 🙂
LikeLike
Deepika, I need to find more ways to use the chicken emoji 🙂 Currently I have been trying to regularly work in the the unicorn and rainbow. I don’t get much more adventurous than that! The beginning of the book was really interesting with the history and meaning and how people use emojis but when it started getting heavy into the linguistics it lost my interest.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I would have just enough interest in reading about emojis to last a magazine article length! You almost wouldn’t think there would be So much to say about them, but then what do I know. There was even a whole movie about them, too, wasn’t there?
LikeLike
Danielle, heh, yeah it would be a really great article! It started off well but I just couldn’t keep caring about whether emojis were or were not a language. I haven;t seen the movie, though I am curious because Patrick Stewart does the voice of the poo emoji which I find pretty funny.
LikeLike
That cover makes me laugh. The topic is interesting but I don’t think a whole book on the subject would keep my attention!
LikeLike
Iliana, isn’t the cover great? I laughed at it too. An entire book was turning into being something a little too much. I just couldn’t do it.
LikeLike