5 ms·

Emoji are text though?

sgarland 2y ago
When (Western) people say text, they generally mean ASCII. If your language requires glyphs, that is of course reasonable to also be called text. I’ll grant emoticons (e.g. :-D) as being textual, because they are composed of the building blocks of ASCII. An emoji, though consisting of Unicode code point[s], cannot say the same, unless you’re arguing that they’re all bits, which is reductionist.
- ehnto 2y ago
  Emoticons was a western word for emoji I think, which originated in Japan. Emo(emotion) Ji (glyph/character). The distinction between one being text and one being pictures isn't a widely used one I don't think, please someone correct me if I am wrong. I think it's perhaps a retroactive distinction in certain social circles/settings but not particularly consistent.
  - f33d5173 2y ago
    picture (e) character (moji) actually Though the similarity to emoticon is amusing.
    - ehnto 2y ago
      Oh yeah, you are right. I had recalled it was a contraction of emotion and character. I wonder if the specific kanji for (e) was picked for it's reading, and thus double entendre in English, intentionally.
  - ruthmarx 2y ago
    > Emoticons was a western word for emoji I think, which originated in Japan. Emoticons predate emoji are were always purely ascii text based.
    - mprovost 2y ago
      In an alternative universe where someone other than Americans invented the popular character set, would emoticons have existed at all if computers had the capability to display Unicode glyphs from the start? It feels like still insisting on using Morse code after keyboards were invented.
      - ruthmarx 2y ago
        > would emoticons have existed at all if computers had the capability to display Unicode glyphs from the start? Probably not. > It feels like still insisting on using Morse code after keyboards were invented. For some of us older people it's a habit. Easier to type instead of going looking for an emoji, especially if not on a phone.
        ehnto 2y ago
        I prefer the aesthetic of it. But also there are specific tones for me and long term friends, that are not perfectly captured in the myriad different pictures. For example, ;_; and :P from english IRC days, do not map perfectly to the tongue out picture emojis in almost any set I have seen.
    - sgarland 2y ago
      Yes, though there were intermediaries like CP437 [0] which contained crude emoji. That said, though I was exposed to them growing up in the 90s, emoticons by far dominated every message board and chat service I ever used. Emoji didn’t really take off (at least, in America) until smartphones hit. [0]: https://www.aivosto.com/articles/charsets-codepages-dos.html https://www.aivosto.com/articles/charsets-codepages-dos.html
- sham1 2y ago
  Eh, you'd get plenty of Westerners who'd argue that text goes beyond ASCII. Most of Europe, for example, requires Latin-1 at the very least. Not to even mention Greek and the like.
  - sgarland 2y ago
    Fair point. I still think there’s a vast difference between letters / glyphs and emoji, though. One is the default for communication, the other is optional at best.

When (Western) people say text, they generally mean ASCII. If your language requires glyphs, that is of course reasonable to also be called text. I’ll grant emoticons (e.g. :-D) as being textual, because they are composed of the building blocks of ASCII. An emoji, though consisting of Unicode code point[s], cannot say the same, unless you’re arguing that they’re all bits, which is reductionist.

ehnto 2y ago
Emoticons was a western word for emoji I think, which originated in Japan. Emo(emotion) Ji (glyph/character). The distinction between one being text and one being pictures isn't a widely used one I don't think, please someone correct me if I am wrong. I think it's perhaps a retroactive distinction in certain social circles/settings but not particularly consistent.
- f33d5173 2y ago
  picture (e) character (moji) actually Though the similarity to emoticon is amusing.
  - ehnto 2y ago
    Oh yeah, you are right. I had recalled it was a contraction of emotion and character. I wonder if the specific kanji for (e) was picked for it's reading, and thus double entendre in English, intentionally.
- ruthmarx 2y ago
  > Emoticons was a western word for emoji I think, which originated in Japan. Emoticons predate emoji are were always purely ascii text based.
  - mprovost 2y ago
    In an alternative universe where someone other than Americans invented the popular character set, would emoticons have existed at all if computers had the capability to display Unicode glyphs from the start? It feels like still insisting on using Morse code after keyboards were invented.
    - ruthmarx 2y ago
      > would emoticons have existed at all if computers had the capability to display Unicode glyphs from the start? Probably not. > It feels like still insisting on using Morse code after keyboards were invented. For some of us older people it's a habit. Easier to type instead of going looking for an emoji, especially if not on a phone.
      - ehnto 2y ago
        I prefer the aesthetic of it. But also there are specific tones for me and long term friends, that are not perfectly captured in the myriad different pictures. For example, ;_; and :P from english IRC days, do not map perfectly to the tongue out picture emojis in almost any set I have seen.
  - sgarland 2y ago
    Yes, though there were intermediaries like CP437 [0] which contained crude emoji. That said, though I was exposed to them growing up in the 90s, emoticons by far dominated every message board and chat service I ever used. Emoji didn’t really take off (at least, in America) until smartphones hit. [0]: https://www.aivosto.com/articles/charsets-codepages-dos.html https://www.aivosto.com/articles/charsets-codepages-dos.html
sham1 2y ago
Eh, you'd get plenty of Westerners who'd argue that text goes beyond ASCII. Most of Europe, for example, requires Latin-1 at the very least. Not to even mention Greek and the like.
- sgarland 2y ago
  Fair point. I still think there’s a vast difference between letters / glyphs and emoji, though. One is the default for communication, the other is optional at best.