emojiz

“We ALL started out like this, didn’t we? Using words and images interchangeably.”

Since cell phones became ubiquitous throughout the 21st century, texting has been the main form of communication throughout friends and family. Quick and easily accessible, texting has connected friends across the globe via the Internet and now online friends are the new normal. Yet texting has also taken something from us, the inflections in tone and facial expressions that help us decipher the true meaning of the words that people are saying. I’ve mistaken many of my friends’ texts for something as sarcastic when they really did not mean for their words to come out as mocking at all. This disconnect from conversations prevents us from picking up on small social cues that reveal our true intentions, yet gradually, we are texting more with our expressions the help of some unexpected symbols: emojis. Emojis help convey the tone and mood that we are in and allow snarky comments to be sent without hurting any feelings. In fact, Time magazine put out an article about how emojis help more people have xǝs more. While that article may just be clickbait (feelsbad), emojis really have put personal conversations into a cell phone. Emojis have become our hieroglyphics, allowing us to convey a wide variety of moods with just a couple of images. We are in the era of the cave drawings, except on a cell phone. Communication has been changing so rapidly these past few years, and it’s only a matter of time before we can beam our thoughts into other people’s minds. But until that happens, use more emojis. It just might clear up an upcoming misunderstanding :o