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Well it’s been a few months since I have felt like writing anything. It’s not you, it’s me. I just read an article in the NY Times about the near-end of pandemic lethargy, and I can totally relate. Except they interviewed a bunch of experts in the field on anxiety, as if that was necessary. You could just talk to anyone (or at least anyone who thought the pandemic was real in the first place). They are all ready to move on and travel and eat out, and mostly still waiting to do so. So close, yet so far. Anyway, I decided I should keep writing—it helps get things out of my head.
What topic do I want to talk to you all about? Emojis. I was inspired by an article I read back in February (see, I told you I was feeling lethargic…). It was titled: “Hey millennials, stop ruining emoji for Gen Z.” (And yes, I know I am not Gen Z.)
This article makes me think of a conversation I once had with my old boss when I was an editor. Anyone who knew Martie knew she was the kind of person who could have an hour long conversation about semi colons. (We both agreed you should only be allowed to use them if you were an English major, but I digress.) She thought emojis were both awful and hilarious. She really couldn’t see why anyone would even need them in the first place. Why use a funny face to replace words, which if wielded properly could describe anything you needed. (By the way, I’m pretty sure at the time of this discussion faces were still a colon followed by a parentheses.) I explained that emojis gave the context for the written sentence. It replaces body language since in-person communication was 50% body language—and we now had many more forms of informal written communication. Being a person who is fairly reliant on sarcasm, I found this useful in emails to Oregonians who might not otherwise recognize the obvious (to others) sarcasm.
But what this article about emojies and two generations of people younger than me made me realized is that while emojis started out giving context to words, now they just have replaced all the words. Which actually does make communication harder rather than easier. We have reverted back to the ancient Egyptians—pictographs meant to vaguely convey what is happening with no subtlety or context. Or perhaps it all subtle—after all what the hell does an eggplant have to with sex? That’s pretty subtle. And it can also lead to a total breakdown of communication, or misinformation. For example, apparently that syringe with blood coming out of it is suppose to symbolize vaccines? Uh, that’s not exactly what it looks like when you get vaccinated—no wonder people are terrified. And yes, I’m glad they are changing it. But why was it even a thing in the first place. Is the word vaccine so hard to write?
And then I started thinking, if we have replaced words with cute little symbols everywhere won’t we start forgetting how to use words at all? And that’s really where I’ve come down on the whole emoji topic. I think they have become just harder to interpret words, which makes our communication more challenging but I fully support using them in addition to words. I mean the meanings of words have always evolved from appropriate to inappropriate and sometimes back again. But outside of language evolving, changing words into symbols naturally makes language less precise not more precise. We have forgotten how to write in a way that has context and meaning. At the risk of sounding old fashioned (implied by the Boomers statement in this article), the skills of writing are even more important in a hyper-polarized world than they were back when people knew how to disagree but still have a conversation.
Anyway, I expect this is why I don’t use too many emojis and when I do I spend way too much time staring at the list of them in my phone trying to figure out which smiley face exactly conveys the emotion I am trying to insert in my text. And it also explains why you won’t see me use a syringe covered in blood in place of the word “vaccine”. It turns out I sort-of agree with Martie after all; she knew what was coming down the line.