Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8
Review: When the Digital World Is Judging Your Every Thought
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, politics, social media, threat
Summary | The new novel "I Hate The Internet" by Jarett Kobek poses a lot of interesting questions about how social media is affecting our society. The main question is: why is everyone willingly giving away their intellectual property on platforms owned by for-profit corporations? How did these capitalist platforms become to be perceived as the most appropriate space to exercise one's freedom of speech? Wannabe social activists think they are helping a cause by posting provocative comments on social media but few people are getting active for real social change.
Image Description | Image of the book and a portrait of the author holding a giant plush emoji.
Image Tags | emojis, male(s)
Muslim Teenager Proposes Emoji of Woman Wearing a Head Scarf
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 14.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | A muslim teenager from Germany didn't think she could fully express herself with the emojis available on her phone; she wanted to use a hijab emoji. She emailed her proposal to the Unicode Consortium, and her proposal caught the eye of Unicode employees. Since there are about 550 million women who wear a hijab, she thought it was a good reason to propose a hijab emoji. Women want to be better represented on their keyboard, this is why there has been various requests to add more diverse female emojis.
Image Description | Pictures of potential hijab emojis
Image Tags | emojis
Apple Opens the iMessage Door, and the Ephemera Rushes In
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, GIFs, word/writing
Summary | An Apple user of iMessage can now use different "tchotchkees" (e.g. GIFs, stickers, emojis) which dominate text messages whereas words are just "afterthought". Users can also throw confetti and balloons. Apple is trying to mimic what is out there on the internet.
Image Description | Screenshots of iMessage chats with words and stickers/emojis/GIFs/confetti, and screenshot of a tweet
Image Tags | emojis, gifs, text, Twitter
New York Public Hospitals Use Emojis to Reach Young People About Sex
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.7.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, social media, youth
Summary | New York City hospitals are now trying to get young people's attention on social media to inform them about free, confidential sexual health services. The advertisement campaign includes emojis, for instance the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji or bird and bee emojis. They talked to youths in focus groups and determined that this might be the best way to reach them. The campaign is particularly important because many youth report that they do not approach their parents with questions concerning sexual health. Critics of the campaign however say that the advertisements might be too ambiguous and difficult to understand for people who are only just learning English.
Image Description | Two advertisements of the question "Need to talk to someone about 'it'?" accompanied by an eggplant emoji and bird and bee emojis.
Image Tags | emojis
Judging Others by Their Email Tics
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 29.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | email, research/study
Summary | Meaning in emails is not only conveyed by the content but also by the form: Whether we use 'hi', 'hey', or 'dear' and how witty our email signature is really determines our personal brand. People make an effort to go back to previous emails to see on what kind of greeting terms (hi or hey?) with their addressees, linguist Gretchen McColloch says. Whether we use proper spelling with capitalizations or whether we just use lower-case throughout can have implications about power relations. Emojis and GIFs have become commonplace even in emails now to help us quickly signal an emotion.
Image Description | Illustration of a paper plane with emojis and word snippets (hey, hi, cc, bcc) flying out of it.
Image Tags | emojis
Secrets of the Emoji World, Now With Its Own Convention
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | An obscure committee called Unicode Consortium made up of various representatives of leading technological companies world-wide has the ultimate power over which content gets turned into emojis and which does not. An emoji convention (Emojicon) is organized in San Francisco, decorated with emoji-shaped balloons, beach balls, bean bags, emoji foods, people dressed up as emojis, and with many expert speakers from academia, the corporate world, as well as artists and designers. Many of them are unhappy with such a small unrepresentative group of a few (likely) middle-aged, white men should decide on which emojis are available to everyone around the world. The Unicode Consortium has too much power over the global visual language.
Image Description | A hand reaching into a pile of emoji cut-outs. A person dressed as the peach emoji being interviewed. Two people in costumes taking a selfie.
Image Tags | emojis, hand(s), selfie
Married to Their Smartphones (Oh, and to Each Other, Too)
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.10.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, gender
Summary | Married couples increasingly report of marital disputes around smartphone use. Especially women feel devalued when their husbands give more attention to their smartphones rather than then. Marriage counsellors report that it is particularly problematic when spouses both use their smartphones in bed since it prevents emotional incimacy before going to sleep, as well as reducing the likelihood of physical intimacy.
Image Description | Illustration of a female and male smartphone on a marriage counselling couch.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone, text
Branding the Smiley Face: Emoji as Corporate Tools
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 21.6.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis, threat
Summary | Messenger designers are thinking about incorporating techniques to “emojify” one’s message. The keyboard would suggest appropriate emojis to replace certain words of the message. A central organization called Unicode, where all major smartphone companies have voting rights, decides on which new emojis will be added. This society is effectively deciding what is and what is not part of our visual language. The new emoji feature that Apple offers can hamper users' individual creativity and expression. By using the 'emojify' feature, we let big companies control people's ways to express themselves.
Image Description | Digital image of a collection of new emojis and photograph of an iPhone with a chat (with emojis) open.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone
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