3 ms·

I have made a conscious commitment to stop all use of emojis. They seem innocent enough, but ultimately they're debasing language and limiting the range of free

I have made a conscious commitment to stop all use of emojis. They seem innocent enough, but ultimately they're debasing language and limiting the range of free expression. For example, in 2018, most major platforms changed their revolver emojis to water gun icons, in an apparent attempt to "do something" about gun violence. This would be a laughable proposition if it didn't border on dystopian. We should not allow these corrupt companies and consortiums to dictate our capabilities of conveying ourselves based on their political ideologies. Orwell understood well vagueness and use of euphemisms as powerful tools of oppressing political opposition, and wrote beautifully of it in Politics and the English Language (1946).

Larrikin 4y ago
What would be the emoji equivalent of old man shaking fist at cloud?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
swatcoder 4y ago
> They seem innocent enough, but ultimately they're debasing language and limiting the range of free expression. Whatever they do, it’s not that. Emojis allow for multivalence and useful ambiguity in ways that few words still have left in them. From the perspectives of both communication and poetry, they’re a major boon to what’s now possible in written form. Rage all you want, though. Talking about them like this helps sharpen our understanding of what they actually do.
jerojero 4y ago
In simple emoji fashion, I would use the "rolling eyes" emoji to express my discontent with your post.
- 1101010010 4y ago
  Do you think that would be more or less respectful than using your words to communicate in polite discourse?
  - jerojero 4y ago
    Thinking emoji, shrugging person (genderless) emoji. Get used to it. Emojis, emotes, gifs, reaction images, these all add extra complexity to the way we communicate. Not everyone needs to be a writer; what's this thing about respect? Obviously I am being facetious because I believe you to have quite a strong and antiquated view of how language works. Written language always has had a visual component, languages like japanese have written words that comprise entire concepts and can be interpreted in many different ways (kind of like an image). But emojis also do something pretty remarkable in that they are very much universal, of course, people use certain emojis in different ways. But more often than not they can allow from context-based communication between people of different languages in a much simpler and straight forward way. Let me give you an example: You travel to Germany, you don't know German but you go into Grindr and you send hot face emoji, eggplant emoji, and a question mark to a guy. I assure you that, although crude, he will more or less get the message. In fact, symbols are already used in everyday language. More often than not, if I'm confused about something just sending a question mark (?) will be enough to express it. Sending several question marks (????) will communicate stronger confusion. Language is what we make of it, if you think reducing the need of using words to express complex ideas is bad then just send more emojis and you'll be communicating, in fewer space, more. How is that bad? On telegram, sometimes I communicate exclusively using stickers with certain friends. It seems to me like, maybe, you might be annoyed because communication has grown more complex than it used to be. People laugh at boomers not knowing how to use emojis.

Larrikin 4y ago

What would be the emoji equivalent of old man shaking fist at cloud?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

swatcoder 4y ago

> They seem innocent enough, but ultimately they're debasing language and limiting the range of free expression. Whatever they do, it’s not that. Emojis allow for multivalence and useful ambiguity in ways that few words still have left in them. From the perspectives of both communication and poetry, they’re a major boon to what’s now possible in written form. Rage all you want, though. Talking about them like this helps sharpen our understanding of what they actually do.

jerojero 4y ago

In simple emoji fashion, I would use the "rolling eyes" emoji to express my discontent with your post.

1101010010 4y ago
Do you think that would be more or less respectful than using your words to communicate in polite discourse?
- jerojero 4y ago
  Thinking emoji, shrugging person (genderless) emoji. Get used to it. Emojis, emotes, gifs, reaction images, these all add extra complexity to the way we communicate. Not everyone needs to be a writer; what's this thing about respect? Obviously I am being facetious because I believe you to have quite a strong and antiquated view of how language works. Written language always has had a visual component, languages like japanese have written words that comprise entire concepts and can be interpreted in many different ways (kind of like an image). But emojis also do something pretty remarkable in that they are very much universal, of course, people use certain emojis in different ways. But more often than not they can allow from context-based communication between people of different languages in a much simpler and straight forward way. Let me give you an example: You travel to Germany, you don't know German but you go into Grindr and you send hot face emoji, eggplant emoji, and a question mark to a guy. I assure you that, although crude, he will more or less get the message. In fact, symbols are already used in everyday language. More often than not, if I'm confused about something just sending a question mark (?) will be enough to express it. Sending several question marks (????) will communicate stronger confusion. Language is what we make of it, if you think reducing the need of using words to express complex ideas is bad then just send more emojis and you'll be communicating, in fewer space, more. How is that bad? On telegram, sometimes I communicate exclusively using stickers with certain friends. It seems to me like, maybe, you might be annoyed because communication has grown more complex than it used to be. People laugh at boomers not knowing how to use emojis.