Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 78
Posts 61 - 70

The rise and rise of emoji social networks

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.9.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, social media, word/writing
Summary | The end of the word is close; three social media want to introduce 100% emoji conversations. Emojicate was the first network that tried to revolutionize our communication. Emojili is the real leader in terms of all-emoji network. The app creators state that Emojili started as a joke. Nowadays, more apps are image-oriented (e.g. focused on photo-sharing), and even Instagram posts are largely emojified.
Image Description | Image of an emoji.
Image Tags | emojis

Adults who use emoji should grow up

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 18.6.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, youth
Summary | Emojis are not the most interesting Internet invention, according to the author. Next to memes for examples, they are quite unimaginative. Also, the use of emojis by adults seems to mirror their refusal to grow up. They have important decisions to make in order to shape a bright future for the next generations.
Image Description | Image of a winking face emoji.
Image Tags | emojis

Emoji: the first truly global language?

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 31.8.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, word/writing
Summary | The author of the article explains how sometimes sending an emoji can convey more than words, in just one click. Emojis have come a long way since their origin, and today one of the major concerns about emojis is diversity. The authors claims that if we're building a new language, we want to include everyone and everything. Emojis are also being used in other contexts (e.g. video clip, book). Words can express a lot but they can also create misunderstandings; emojis can thus be a way of freeing oneself from the limitations of language.
Image Description | Digital image representing different emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

Emoji is dragging us back to the dark ages – and all we can do is smile

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Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 27.5.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat
Summary | The fact that the new "emoji language" is expanding fast is viewed as a return to the dark ages. According to the author of the article, humanity is going downhill with this new visual language. Young people seem to prefer using emojis rather than words to express themselves (according to a survey). The author claims that images limit people's expression compared to words which are more adaptable. He also compares emojis with hieroglyphics and the Egyptian civilization.
Image Description | Two digital images representing different sets of emojis, and photograph of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Image Tags | emojis, hieroglyphics

New York Public Hospitals Use Emojis to Reach Young People About Sex

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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

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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

Take a break from the election and read this story about emoji karaoke

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 8.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | A convention for emojis (Emojicon) taking place in a San Francisco mall attracts lots of emoji professionals and afficionados. There they learn about the Unicode Consortium - the non-profit organization that introduces new emojis. Everybody can submit an emoji design to Unicode but only 70 emojis are accepted per year. Unicode also never deletes an already existing emoji, so they have to keep the number of new entries low. The convention is full of fun activities, 'emoji karaoke' being one of them. A room full of people listen to songs and try to transcribe them with emojis in real time.
Image Description | Photograph of a woman in a peach emoji costume. People with emoji balloons. An emoji caricature artist.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s), male(s)

Secrets of the Emoji World, Now With Its Own Convention

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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

We’re Finally Getting A Hijab Emoji

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Newspaper | Huffington Post
Date | 14.11.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis
Summary | The Unicode Consortium has revealed a bunch of new emojis that will be implemented in its newest version. Included are an emoji with a woman wearing a hijab, a breastfeeding emoji, a mermaid emoji, different emojis with people sitting in the lotus position, and many more facial expession emojis such as a vomiting emoji and a crazy eyes laughing emoji. There is however no knowing whether smartphone companies or social media channels will include all new emojis on their devices/platforms.
Image Description | Some of the new emojis.
Image Tags | emojis

Emojis: As Japanese tire of emoticons, could their days be numbered elsewhere?

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Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 13.12.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis
Summary | Emojis are everywhere; they are a part of our daily interactions and have become a new language. The birthplace of emojis is Japan, but the little symbols are not as popular over there anymore. Japanese people don't like the style of Western emojis, which explains the fading popularity of emojis in Japan. Apple's emojis were designed in a more Western style, different from Japanese emojis. Diversity has been an important issue regarding emojis. We can use same-sex couples emojis and choose the color of emoji's skin, but people are still waiting to see red-haired emojis for instance.
Image Description | Digital images of emojis and photographs of smartphones showing text messages and emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, smartphone, text

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