Moiz Gilani

English Composition

Professor JP

15 September 2019

“Origin of Emojis”: A Source-Based Essay

This reading will evaluate the basics of emojis and how are they used in the modern world. The essay will include five pieces of scholarly articles (Magazines, Websites, writings, and articles) discussing the stance, audience, tone, medium, genre, author, language and purpose. Emojis are perhaps the most significant advancement in human communication. Humans use language as a form of communication with others, which allows them to convey their message the way they want. There are several forms of communication that can also be used to communicate, such as American Sign Language, Braille and more. In this 21st century, Society tends to communicate with friends and relatives using smartphone texting apps. Emojis are commonly used in today’s computer-based conversations. They are often treated as a language by many users. Most people use emojis to express what they are trying to say. Emojis are convenient and make responses be more understandable to others. If someone sends a message without any hint of emotion, it might be misunderstood by the reader. A visual expression, known as emoticons, helps clarify the meaning.

Emoticons and emoji are changing the way we communicate, The first source is from an article by Wired written by Arielle Pardes, The WIRED guide to emoji; it shows us the origin of Emoji and where they came from. “The first emoji was created in 1999 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita. Kurita worked on the development team for “i-mode,” an early mobile internet platform from Japan’s main mobile carrier, DOCOMO. Kurita wanted to design an attractive interface to convey information in a simple”(Pardes). The author provides the audience with information regarding emojis. How they were originated in Japan and is now being used worldwide. We have developed a new kind of language, a universal communication tool that lets us subtly express our emotions. Shigetaka Kurita was inspired by visual imagery. The article briefly explains how we use emoji and they are used by people of all ages. Emojis improve our ability to communicate more effectively. The rhetorical stance towards its targeted audience, mostly social media users,  is informative and the purpose is to provide knowledge about the context of this writing.

The second source by Vyvyan Evans from NY Post, Emoji actually make our language better August 12, 2017. “After all, emojis simply are not relevant for long-form written communication: literature, complex prose, scientific journals. Emojis’ relevance lies in the abbreviated digital messages of daily life, To assert that emojis will make us poorer communicators is like saying facial expressions make your emotions harder to read. The idea is nonsensical. It’s a false analogy to compare emojis to the language of Shakespeare”(Evans) The author is proving that many people may believe that using emoji make our conversation skills worse but is not true, as language and emojis are both very different form of communication. The Author’s stance and tone toward the audience is argumentative as he is challenging the ideas and claims made by others. Evans also employs a wide variety of mediums in order to prove his point toward everyday phone users who use texts to communicate. The fact is that visual imagery makes your emotions easy to understand, therefore if we add emojis in our texts it would help the reader in deciding how they should react.

Another report by Amanda N. Gesselman, Vivian P. Ta and Justin R. Garcia from public library of science explains Academic OneSearch,  “Though several lines of research have addressed the impact of emoticons on communication, emojis-newer, more graphically enhanced descendants of emoticons that include an extensive variety of expressions and object pictographs-are only just starting to be examined”. The reduction of expressive and affective information, combined with the inability to use the same nonverbal cues as in face-to-face interactions results in a challenging environment that requires more effort to achieve effective communication and mutual understanding “In face-to-face interactions, people often rely on non-verbal behaviors to effectively express emotions. These behaviors communicate both intentional and unintentional signals and allow for cultivating a bond through shared effect”(Gesselman). The writers provide multiple claims of how it is important to express facial emotions as many say that emotions are the most important part of the conversation. The author delivers his view in a brief way toward his audience who might be struggling to communicate with others. The purpose of this text describes the effectiveness of nonverbal interactions. The writer’s informative stance provides strong evidence on the given topic using the argumentative medium.

 

To begin with, Emojis and visual imagery helped people to communicate virtually with anyone. In a  New York Times Magazine Article, “How to use emojis” By Mallia Wolan. “when people communicate in short bits of text, they lose the physical signals that suggest warmth and connection. Emojis can help fill that void.” (Wolan). The article suggests that when people tend to have a conversation using texts, telling the audience that they lose connection and personal feelings for the person they are communicating with, however deploying an emoji in between a message might give more meaning to it. The author is conveying the purpose of using emojis for people who forget how effective emotions are. The writer used a passive tone to bring the idea of text-based communication.

Another source, Critical Emotions, Published by University of Nebraska Press, From author Lynn Z. Bloom Vol. 18, “ The use of emoticons in literary criticism has numerous advantages.  As the days of critical wine and roses dwindle down to a precious few, critical emoticons provide a  cheap and easy means for streamlining our critical commentary. This economical expression and delivery of emotional judgment allow us critics to finally dare to say what we really mean in contexts hitherto dominated by indirection and obfuscation”(Bloom). According to the author, We can do more work in less time applying emoticons and emojis. Instead of describing a situation or an object, we can just use one simple visual imagery to convey or message, also known as expressive symbols. The article examines the advantages of emoticons. The purpose of using emojis is shown in different mediums to spread the benefits to its audience, many might call this “being lazy” but it is a faster way to send a message.

 

In conclusion, the article focuses on how we understand emojis to express current emotions in one image while texting on social media. Recent studies have investigated the ambiguity and potential for miscommunication that emojis carry, even when embedded in linguistic contexts. Emojis are widely used around the world and represent various types of objects, facial expressions, and thoughts that make our conversations easier to understand. From the text it is evident how visual imageries are tremendously important, adding a visual element to text-based communication. Emojis are also the world’s first global language, According to Swan, “It’s easy to think they’re just for teenagers whose phones are permanently glued to their hands. But, as ever with the humble emoji, there’s so much more beneath the surface”(Swan). Given the rise of digital communication via text, emoji have become key to communicate emotions. Emojis are having a huge impact on multiple human studies. In computer-based communication, emoticons help represent the human gestures, voice tones and physical expressions people do when communicating vocally. As such, people read emoji as emotional information, which helps identify the meaning of digital messages that can sometimes differ, depending on the personality of an individual. Emojis reduce digital communication complexity and allow a greater sense of identity. This essay concludes the theme of Emoji by proving that emojis are perhaps the most significant advancement in text-based communication. Applying distinct rhetorical terms assisted the claims of different authors. Each article consists of their own unique mediums,  analyzing all sorts of purposes in detail. Authors convey messages to their audience in distinct tones and genres.

 

Work Cited

Tony McCaffrey, and Percival G. Matthews. “An Emoji Is Worth a Thousand Variables.” The Mathematics Teacher, vol. 111, no. 2, 2017, pp. 96–102. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5951/mathteacher.111.2.0096.

Marcus Swan, “Emoji: The World’s First Global Language” July 17, 2017

https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/meaning-without-words-an-emoji-revolution-aadb4bc0266c

Wollan, Mallia. “How to use Emojis”. March 19, 2019

Arielle Pardes, “The Wired guide to emoji”.  February 1, 2018

https://www.wired.com/story/guide-emoji/

Lynn Z Bloom, Cuny OneSearch, “Critical Emotions”

Amanda N. Gesselman, Vivian P. Ta and Justin R. Garcia, “Worth a thousand interpersonal words: Emoji as affective signals for relationship-oriented digital communication”  Academic OneSearch, Gale Academic OneFile PLoS ONE (Vol. 14, Issue 8.)

https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA596525721&docType=Report&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZONE-MOD1&prodId=AONE&contentSet=GALE%7CA596525721&searchId=R1&userGroupName=cuny_ccny&inPS=true

Evans, Vyvyan. “Emojis actually make our language better” New York Times Post, August 12, 2017

https://nypost.com/2017/08/12/emojis-actually-make-our-language-way-better/