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Rearranging Notions of the Digital and the Physical

Keywords of the 21st Century

Frerk Hillmann-Rabe, Lina Boes, Vanessa Richter, Katrin Schuenemann, Malte-Kristof Müller, Philine Schomacher, Elisa Budian, Lara Jueres, Authors
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Emoji - Lara Jüres

Emojis - they are these little pictures you can send with your messages to underline a certain statement, to show your feelings or just to write less. They are colorful, cute and cause confusions. #definition
With the digitalization there is one major aspect in #communication that changes: You have to be able to express your emotions digitally. This comes along with some difficulties. Emojis are there to help you. They show a thumb-up, smiling faces and nails that are just getting polished: you can let the emojis talk for you. As easy and fun as it might be - there are also problems that occur with them. Even though there are only a few signs, a lot of persons have a different meaning for them. So what one person writes might be understood in a different way from the reader. The prawn can also be seen as a croissant for example. Just imagine someone might think you eat prawns for breakfast, while you actually wanted to invite him over to have a croissant with you. Emojis won’t just stop with causing misunderstandings, they also substitute the written language. It is much faster, to just send one emoji that sums up all your feelings, than writing. Hopefully, everyone understands the meaning of a red heart. And if someone is in a rush (which is not a rare thing in this globalized world) - why not just send a heart to your sweetheart instead of writing three words. It is so much easier. #ephemeral



However, it is important to realize, that emojis are basically the same as language. The alphabet is the visualization of it and so is the emoji. It is just a new form and thus not understandable for everyone. So the confusion I mentioned earlier, originates from the fact that there is no standardization of „emoji-meaning“ yet, like it exists for the written language (a dictionary).
But where does the emoji come from? Human beings always used signs to demonstrate matters. Just think of the cave drawings from the stone age. Or during the period of the Enlightenment, small paintings how you should and shouldn’t behave came into fashion.
There is another phenomenon, emojis might originate from: the emoticons. But you should never ever get confused which is which. The emoticons are such a simpler form to express your feelings, that you can almost call them oldschool. Emoticons are the things you build up with tiping certain punctuation marks, so that it will show a smiley. Like this: :-). But with the development of technology and the appearance of smartphones, emoticons are no longer necessary. You don’t have to build your pictures yourself - they are already there for you. You want to tell someone you look forward to the party tonight? Just send them the flamenco dancer, a note and the thumb-up signs - and everyone will understand you. Hopefully.
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