Post #11- Another Tech

 

Tech Topic: Emoticons

The technology I selected, is emoticons presented by Aaron Jackson. Emoticons are visual symbols or "glyphs" used in technology-mediated written communication used to depict a certain emotion and clarify tone. The first emoticon, created in 1982 by Scott E. Fahlman, are keyboard symbols, ":-)", arranged to represent a smiling face.

Emoticons have evolved from keyboard symbols using punctuation to small graphics of animated faces  (😂🙄😩), commonly referred to and hyphenated as "emojis". 

These emojis help the message composer and receivers avoid miscommunication, each face clarifying tone and meaning. If you are unsure of how your message may be interpreted, emojis allow for the sender to quickly add feeling, without having to change or rewrite their message to do so. 

For example: 

"what do you want 😒" 

"what do you want 😁"

"what do you want 😏"

Each message has the same written content but the each tone and underlying meaning is determined and clarified by the emojis used. 

While emojis have become are conveniently and commonly used in most informal messaging platforms,  Fahlman, their creator, disapproves of their evolution.  Falman criticizes the new animated versions, denouncing the lack of creativity and innovation required in their composition. Personally, I disagree with Fahlman because I think the thousands of different little faces can be used creatively in different ways. While they can clarify the tone of text messages, which is how they are intended, you can also use them creatively through sarcasm, among many other options outside of their original use. 

Apple now has added over 3,961 emoji's. In addition to faces, they have added symbols and objects so your options for expression and explanation are endless. Emojis have become so common in our day and age that they began to use them in commercials, putting them on hats, shirts, coffee mugs you name it. Emojis became so popular that they even made a whole movie about them!! Linked below are the official emoji movie trailer, and emoji merchandise:

https://youtu.be/r8pJt4dK_s4 

https://www.amazon.com/Emoji-Cap/s?k=Emoji+Cap

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=emoji+hoodie&crid=25X6EGJS495V8&sprefix=Emoji+hoo%2Caps%2C173&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9

It is mind blowing (🤯) that an animated character from a cell phone company has now become big enough to have its own movie and it's a slew of merchandise, but hey (🤷‍♂️) that's the world we live in.