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Your brain on emoji

nautil.us

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Re: Your brain on emoji

#51

Post by noman-land »

lapcat wrote: post #38

I quit using emoji entirely almost 5 years ago, though I do continue to use a few simple emoticons. https://twitter.com/lapcatsoftware/status/104722329811389645... My reasons: "There's a method to my madness. You see, gifs are trivially infinitely extensible and backward compatible. Whereas each new emoji requires an addition to Unicode and software updates. And the demand for more emoji is insatiable. That system is…

I think the big difference between gif and emoji is that you need to see a gif to know what it represents.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#52

Post by overgard »

frereubu wrote: post #4

I was a hold-out for quite a while, like the author, because they felt very twee. The one that convinced me though was the thumbs-up emoji, which can be an entire reply to an email or text, that says "I've read this, and we don't need to continue the conversation", with undertones of agreement or a thank-you. Somehow single-word replies like "Gotcha" or "Yes" felt too curt, and anything longer invited further discuss…

I've always been afraid of using thumbs up because I've heard in some cultures as a gesture it means "up yours", although I suppose at this point almost everyone realizes what it means in a global/digital sense.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#53

Post by graypegg »

overgard wrote: post #43

It's funny the way language is evolving; even things like how you use punctuation and capitalization now has meaning. Like 20 years ago, if I was sending an IM or something, I would always just write like I'm writing here. But now, if I'm sending someone a text or slack or something, I always feel like it's more casual/less try hard if it's lowercase with relaxed punctuation. (That's just my style, I don't expect oth…

ASL has some casual register signs that are simplified or single hand versions of complex signs [1] that only came about from people chatting more casually. The original version goes from being the only word, to being the formal word for that idea.

I think humans just tend towards registers of communication, regardless of the medium.

[1] https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lesson27.htm

Re: Your brain on emoji

#54

Post by jodrellblank »

hammock wrote: post #46
jodrellblank wrote: post #44

I'm starting to find them emotionally manipulative in a bad way. FireFox settings should not be showing a sad-face emoji just because it's not my default browser. Especially when I'm using BrowserTamer[1] to intercept all URL launches so I can feed a few work URLs to Edge and Chrome, and FireFox as the default for everything else, so it effectively is my default browser. It's not the only piece of software behaving s…

>FireFox settings should not be showing a sad-face emoji just because it's not my default browser. The irony of using the normative "should" to project your preferences onto Firefox, while expressing a desire that Firefox not do so on you. Also - what about iPhones stubbornly showing green texts from Android messagers? That's not even "I'm sad you're using Android." It's more a passive-aggressive "I'm going to degrad…

What's emotionally manipulative about "should"?

... what's degrading about green?

Re: Your brain on emoji

#55

Post by diego_sandoval »

While useful, I think that emojis should not have been included in Unicode.

Unicode is supposed to be a universal standard, but the inclusion and exclusion of some emojis is an ideological issue. The inclusion and wide usage of emojis gives the Unicode consortium a disproportionate degree of influence over the way we communicate.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#56

Post by overgard »

dijit wrote: post #11
frereubu wrote: post #4

I was a hold-out for quite a while, like the author, because they felt very twee. The one that convinced me though was the thumbs-up emoji, which can be an entire reply to an email or text, that says "I've read this, and we don't need to continue the conversation", with undertones of agreement or a thank-you. Somehow single-word replies like "Gotcha" or "Yes" felt too curt, and anything longer invited further discuss…

Yet (and I'm sorry to generalise); Gen-Z "typically finds thumbs up emoji passive aggressive" https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/gen-z-has-hidden-meanings-for-...

I think I'd rather be perceived old than follow Gen Z's weird rules, if that article is to be believed. I will keep my slight smiley thank you very much

Re: Your brain on emoji

#57

Post by noman-land »

sickcodebruh wrote: post #26

I was also a holdout until I saw emojis described as "body language for text". That helps contextualize them and let me appreciate them. They let you add so much nuance and personality to text. In a world of async communication, they can be crucial signifiers of intent.

I was just about to write this. Emoji not only takes the place of body language and facial expressions over a textual medium, but gifs and other pictograms are a whole linguistic and almost hieroglyphic medium of shared cultural communication.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#58

Post by jameshart »

tayo42 wrote: post #28
e40 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, NY Post? F them and the horse they rode in on. They stoke culture wars at every turn. Second, even if it was true (which I doubt), there are some things which should be ignored and someone believing this nonsense should not be coddled. I'm very liberal, but this is just pure nonsense.

Idk that's how I interpret the thumbs up after I say something. In my mind it's comes off like a dismissive "that's cool". Like what ever I said isn't worthy of a text response. Idk it's a little odd to explain I guess

I think it means something very different in a work slack thread than a text chat with friends.

In a work context, it’s perfectly reasonable for someone to want to briefly communicate ‘go ahead you have my approval’ and not mean anything snarky by it. Yet if I’m messaging with my friends and they ask about going for drinks Saturday, and I say ‘go ahead, you have my approval’, that’s going to come off as pretty passive aggressive too.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#60

Post by lapcat »

noman-land wrote: post #51
lapcat wrote: post #38

I quit using emoji entirely almost 5 years ago, though I do continue to use a few simple emoticons. https://twitter.com/lapcatsoftware/status/104722329811389645... My reasons: "There's a method to my madness. You see, gifs are trivially infinitely extensible and backward compatible. Whereas each new emoji requires an addition to Unicode and software updates. And the demand for more emoji is insatiable. That system is…

I think the big difference between gif and emoji is that you need to see a gif to know what it represents.

You mean in terms of accessibility? The good news is that Twitter, err, X gifs already have built-in alt text.

Apparently emoji aren't the greatest for accessibility: https://www.tiny.cloud/blog/emojis-and-accessibility/

It may be even worse for emoticons, so that's a legitimate criticism: https://uxdesign.cc/emojis-in-accessibility-how-to-use-them-...

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