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Language Evolution, Emoji Revolution

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July 9, 2016
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I’m emoji obsessed. I use them as much as possible, anywhere possible. This is probably a sign that I’m old, but I already knew that.

I wrote a post recently about the evolution of the period and whether or not it’s necessary to keep using it in a digital age. Natalie wrote one last week about the word (or non-word) “flustrated,” a word that smashes together flustered and frustrated … we guess? Along these lines, I’ve been thinking about my love of all emojis and how they may impact the written word.

Coming soon to a phone near you is a new round of 72 emojis including the face palm, bacon, and a selfie arm. I can’t help but think of these additions as something akin to the words that Merriam-Webster adds each year. They’re an evolution of how we need and want to be able to communicate with each other. Sometimes, there are absolutely no words better than this guy:

emoji

 

After all, aren’t emojis the more sophisticated version of emoticons? Cute though they were, the standard keyboard is somewhat limiting in expressing feelings.

Communicating so much through the written word can be frustrating sometimes. Emails and texts are super efficient, but not always the most effective way to convey more complex thoughts and feelings. When we talk face to face, we’re using more than words of course, there’s the drop of the brow, a crooked smile, arms crossed. We’re saying so much more than we’re saying. For me, that’s what the gap the emojis help to close between written communication and face-to-face. It’s also an opportunity to be less misunderstood because you can send along a near picture of what you want to convey along with the words.

I’m here to say, I’m all for it. I’m in favor of this evolution. I think it’s fascinating and fabulous and what a cool way that we’ve come up with to help make our digital communication more like sitting down to coffee with a friend. I won’t say it’s a replacement for that by any means, but it sure does help.

I have some friends who also text a ton of gifs to help express what they’re trying to say, and let’s not downplay the fun of Bitmoji. What do you think the next evolution of emojis will be? Are they here to stay or a passing fad? Are they ruining the way we text and talk? Any old school emoticon users out there? 😉

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Punctuation Evolution

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June 24, 2016

We’ve all been there: staring at an email sent by a work colleague that is rife with tension. We agonize over every short sentence, turn of phrase, and use of punctuation. Are they angry? Frustrated? Why is that word in all caps? Trying to understand someone’s hidden subtext in an email is maddening.

Text messages seem to bring that issue to the doorstep of friendships and marriages. My own husband worries if he writes, “I love you!” in a text and I reply, “Love you, too.” God forbid I omit an exclamation point. If I do, I’m clearly trying to tell him that I’m mad at him and love him a little less than normal.

Instant messenger (oh AIM, remember those days?) and texting have already made capitalization optional. If you’re friends with me, you get annoyingly grammatically correct texts–come on, guys, look at where I work–that are proofread. Seriously. But I’m old-fashioned and a stickler for making sure people understand exactly what I’m saying. I take my punctuation and capitalization seriously.

The New York Times article “Period. Full Stop. Point. Whatever It’s Called, It’s Going Out of Style” suggests that the period is becoming irrelevant and is more frequently a type of emoticon used “to show irony, syntactic snark, insincerity, even aggression.” >:-o Just ask my husband!

The article goes on to point out that British teens are already giving up some emoticons and abbreviations like “LOL” and “ROTFL” because they’re used by their parents’ generation and thirty-somethings like me. I’m sure American teens are right there with them. My good friend texted me not long ago that her middle school students told her that only old people use emoticons. Ouch.

Check out The Times article above to ponder this some more. And also pay attention to how author Dan Bilefsky uses (or doesn’t) the period in the article.

So, what say you? Is capitalization irrelevant? Do we need periods anymore? Do you heart emoticons? What do you think is the next punctuation mark to go?