Why you shouldn’t undervalue emojis

There’s a tendency in some circles of British society to dismiss linguistic shortcuts as either laziness, a sign of low intelligence or evidence of creeping Americanisation.

The use of emojis often qualifies on all three counts, as if it’s an affront to the English language to use pictorial instead of written expressions.

Yet emojis have a rich history, as the digital world’s first language. They are also surprisingly versatile.

And while they’re rarely accused of sophistication, they shouldn’t be dismissed as mere conversational shortcuts.

Heritage

Emojis evolved from emoticons, which are the simple but instructive symbols created by combining punctuation marks to create a happy face :) or indicate sadness :’-(

However, these were clearly limited in scope and scale. As early as 1981, IBM included more complex smiling face characters, while the notorious Wingdings font was pictorial only.

Emoji development was concentrated in Japan and inspired by manga cartoons, but it was the advent of smartphones in 2007 which turbocharged their development.

Suddenly, there was an obvious reason to use symbols as shortcuts, as the BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard gave way to numeric touchpads where typing proved laborious.

Google and Apple collaborated on the adoption of a Unicode standard so an iPhone could send an emoji to an Android device and know it would display correctly (and vice versa).

Evolution

After 2010, the Unicode Technical Committee periodically added new emojis for items as diverse as cricket bats, scorpions, tacos and religious symbols.

The initial focus on universally recognisable designs gave way to more nation-specific variants, such as the Japanese bowing businessman or the busby hat.

Currency symbols, national flags (though not Northern Ireland’s), indigenous animals like kangaroos and niche sports such as lacrosse were gradually added.

Today, there are almost 4,000 emojis accessible via Android or Apple devices.

Forthcoming additions will add monarch butterflies, lighthouses and erasers. There will be a meteor symbol (distinct from a comet) and a pickle symbol (distinct from a cucumber).

The benefits of emoji use

Emojis are universal. You don’t need to be able to speak a foreign language to understand a sentiment or recognise an object – a car resembles a car in any culture.

They’re also concise. Sending someone a cup of coffee emoji followed by a question mark is unambiguous and timesaving in equal measure.

Some emoji have been created to raise awareness of health issues, including the mosquito (malaria) and drop of blood (menstruation) characters.

It’s also easy to adjust emojis to reflect distinctions like hair or skin colour – the latter modelled on the Fitzpatrick scale of skin tone classification.

Emoji use is more common among women than men, often adding emotional tone which might otherwise be lacking in written communications. This is known as a paralanguage.

The challenges

Although paralanguages can add nuance to an existing conversation via social media or instant messaging, in isolation, they have the power to appear dismissive or disrespectful.

There’s little sophistication displayed in the use of the poo or aubergine emojis, while the use of multiple crying-with-laughter icons may come across as juvenile or excessive.

A quick thumbs-up icon in response to a notification is fine among friends, but it’s less appropriate among colleagues or in a formal situation.

Cultural definitions also evolve over time, which users may not be aware of. The nail polish emoji can represent anything from accomplishment to self-aggrandisement.

And while there are four thousand emojis, there are a million words in the English language, making written communication far richer and more expressive than symbols.