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Your brain on emoji

nautil.us

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Re: Your brain on emoji

#91

Post by fikama »

lapcat wrote: post #60
noman-land wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

What you written about lack of scalability of emoji for me is their advantege over gifs.

To understand a meaning of a word/emoji/gif you have to see it in context several times or look up a definition. (with emojis and gifs there is additional problem in lack of dictionaries for them). When amount of words in a language is finite or they are extending slowly (emoji) I ma able to keep up with thier meanings as opposed to gifs and memes. Which are evolving to quickly for me to keep up.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#92

Post by d--b »

Emojis are used mostly in 2 ways: punctuating a sentence so that it’s tone is less ambiguous. A shortcut for an emotional state that is not dissimilar to writing “haha” “ew” or “meh”.

As a IRC-chatting teenager in the mid-90s, I am somewhat an expert in emoticons and can’t possibly imagine a world where emojis didn't exist.

But I m surprised no one mentions the “!” or other stylistic tools like all caps. These are “contextual modifiers” for text that have existed for ages. Some languages do have sarcasm punctuation and possibly small adverbs that annotate some kind of emotional state.

So basically yes, the article is right, emojis work mostly like words, but for me it’s just a continuation of what existed before (punctuation and onomatopoeia), and its extension and spread was made possible by the technology (an imposed vocabulary and convenient keyboard).

Re: Your brain on emoji

#93

Post by redwall_hp »

Hamuko wrote: post #77
loganc2342 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The green bubble has nothing to do with with iPhone vs Android, it has to do with iMessage vs a regular text message. iMessages typically use data and text messages typically don’t. Furthermore, iMessages have greater features that obviously can’t be delivered to people who don’t use iMessage, like reactions and effects. iPhone users who use a different messaging app also have green bubbles, as do messages sent as a…

I actually get green text bubbles from a relative with an iPhone because they send messages to my work number whereas my iMessage is tied to my personal number.

I only get green bubbles, because pretty much everyone uses Discord or Facebook Messenger. The only messages I get that arrive through the Messages app are from Android users, usually via Android Auto, or automated notifications.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#94

Post by xdennis »

nine_k wrote: post #37
aidenn0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The invention in Japan, Europe, and the US of smileys was relatively concurrent, which makes sense because by the late 90s, text-art faces (e.g. ":-)" "(^_^)") were prevalent.

Emoji specifically (絵文字, where 絵 means "picture") are a Japanese invention. They were / are custom pictures, initially monochrome, which Japanese mobile phones allowed to insert into texts. See https://www.global.ntt/contributing-society-emoji.html They are not the "smiley" / "emoticon" character art stuff like :-) or =ò.ó= or whatever.

You're using the Japanese term to obscure. Emoticons were invented first and they are both character based and image based.

Later, people started using the term "emojis" for image emoticons and now some people say only text emoticons are real emoticons.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#95

Post by [deleted] »

xzsinu wrote: post #21
Nition wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first paragraph really put me off the article to be honest. Why read an article on emoji by someone who doesn't know what emoji are? At the same time, I do realise "emoji" is now often being used as a generic term that encompasses both true emoji (unicode-based) and general emoticon images.

I've never heard emoticons referred to as emoji, mainly because people don't use emoticons anymore (unless they still post on forums). It seems like a deliberate editorial decision. I would prefer to preserve the distinction, however, for reasons GP stated.

[deleted]

Re: Your brain on emoji

#96

Post by pingou »

Does anymore understand "the cake she made was terrible ;)" as ironic? To me the 3 sentences have all the same meaning, the emoji would just represent the way the person feels about it now. And perhaps with the ;), it could mean that they talked about how the person is a terrible cook before.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#97

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

JohnFen wrote: post #25
xzsinu wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard emoticons referred to as emoji, mainly because people don't use emoticons anymore (unless they still post on forums). It seems like a deliberate editorial decision. I would prefer to preserve the distinction, however, for reasons GP stated.

I use emoticons when texting (because I'm a graybeard), but my phone translates them into emojis before sending. So I've just taken to calling them all emojis.

My beard might be even greyer because I still think of them as 'smileys' :)

Re: Your brain on emoji

#98

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

lapcat wrote: post #60
noman-land wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

> The good news is that Twitter, err, X gifs already have built-in alt text.

The bad news is that X's gifs' alt text is absolute trash most of the time. Stuff like "office stare gif" etc.

Re: Your brain on emoji

#100

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

skeaker wrote: post #63
dijit wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-...

This is context sensitive. As in spoken conversation, if your buddy comes up and shares a cool story with you, silently responding with a thumbs up would be rude. If you're coordinating with a team, a thumbs up is a respectful and commonly understood gesture to indicate that you approve/understand.

Very much so - you need to be careful using things like 'facepunch' (which is a very weird name for the fistbump emoji) or the pray/thanks/hi-five emoji.
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