In an age where we have all
become addicted to our iPhone’s, Blackberry’s, text, e-mail, and all varieties
of instant messaging. Have we also become addicted to trying to express our
emotion through the ever growing lists of emoticons available to us?
Back in the day when mobiles were
still relatively large, had aerials, and often no reception, the only way of
expressing yourself was through shortened words, abbreviations, or a series of
punctuation marks. Yet the reliance on punctuation marks was quite limiting,
and let’s add not very impressive.
Now though you can send an array
of faces expressing your emotions, or at least an intended emotion. For example
you can send; a face with a halo – I’m an angel, commonly used when saying
you’ve done nothing wrong or you’re trying to be flirty and innocent when a
previous message may not have been. A red face with steam coming out its ears –
I’m incensed, or I should be by a previous comment! Or a face that’s vomiting –
fairly obvious what that one means, and also a face that’s crying like a baby –
again fairly self explanatory.
With this wide range of
expressions available to us to use I, like most, often find myself using them
more and more frequently. It often seems far easier, and quicker, than trying
to express myself in words. Also it seems far more representative at time of
how I am feeling, although please note that this only works when you send them
to other people who understand the intention behind them!! It’s not always a
good idea to send them to parents or grandparents of the baby boomer
generation. I’m just happy when my folks text without the caps lock on!!
Yet I can’t help but think that
it is in some way intriguing that instead of moving forward with the written
word, we actually seem to be regressing to the age of the Egyptians! Is it
possible that we are on our way back to hieroglyphs??
Maybe the Egyptians were onto
something. Why write in a text message that you are so annoyed that you are
positively steaming from the ears, when there is an emoticon for that? Why
write the three annoying letters LOL (laugh out loud for anyone who doesn’t
know what that stands for), when there is an emoticon showing someone laughing
and rolling around on the floor?
Emoticons not only express
emotions, but they have also started to express the degree of emotion that we
may wish to express. On my list of symbols for the instant messaging on my
phone for example, I count four ways in which I am able to express a smile.
I think that it is this detail,
and variety, that allows you as a sender or receiver to show your intentions to
the receiver that is very clever. You can be flirty, adolescent, comforting,
suggestive, or whatever else, simply through an array of emoticons. Who needs
to have a way with words, when you can use an emoticon? Credit where it is due,
they are sort of genius!
However, there is a bigger issue
here. Should be concerned at this growing reliance on emoticons and the move
further away from the written word? I am not referring to those that use them
sporadically, but I do worry that one day we might have a generation that -
a)
can’t write without the assistance of an electronic device
b) can’t spell in
accordance with a Collins dictionary, and really believe that “you” is spelt
with just one letter; “u”
c) they are unable to express themselves at all using
the written word.
There are already a growing
number of issues in regards to reading, and many people admitting to the fact that
they have never read a book in their life, but instead to prefer to watch a film
or television. So if we add our growing reliance of emoticons into this fray,
are we going to have a generation that really has gone back to an age that relies
on verbal storytelling and hieroglyphs?
The more you think about our
reliance on symbols and signs rather the written word, the more fascinating it
all becomes. You’ve only got to look at the fact that on toilet doors, you
still have a picture of a man on the men’s and a woman on the women’s. I do
however often find helpful though when I’m in an O’Neil’s pub! Also in
airports, how often do you follow the picture of the suitcase, to let you know
that you are heading in the right direction to get to baggage claim?
It seems that we are surrounded
by the non written word on a daily basis. If emoticons therefore are an
extension of this, where does it all stop?
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