Blog #3: Is texting without the use of emojis disrespecting social cues?
In class at the end of last month, we discussed social cues being one of Baym’s Dimensions of Technologically Medicated Communication; aspects of communication which is not a part of the text itself. I believe the most common form of this would be emojis! Our modern day culture has expressed its intense enjoyment of this small images and they have become especially essential in how we communicate digitally. We have become so dependent on expressing our emotions through these, in fact, that sometimes the lack of use can get you in trouble. For example, if I were to send a text to my roommate and tell her that it is her turn to take out the garbage, I wouldn't dare send it without a "tongue face". Because we have the ability to add these fun-loving graphics to lighten more serious comments, leaving out one appears to be on purpose. Another example could be seen when using the "thumbs up" emoji, which can sometimes come off as passive aggressive on their own. This, however, is solely coming from the perspective of my own point of view and my social circle. In my own personal experience, one must be careful in which emojis to include or not include as each now comes with its own connotations or expectations. I would be interested to hear about your own experiences and if they line up/differ from mine!
I really enjoyed reading your post about emojis. My experiences do in fact line up with yours being that we must be careful in the emojis we use as they can express and mean different things to different individuals. When reading your post I tried to think back to the time when emojis or the limited use of emojis were a thing. It is often hard to picture because they are so often used in todays social interactions. I think that emojis are an effective way in communicating a feeling because we are unable to see the person we are texting however, we do run into issues when the meaning is not shared. I am also intrigued in the development of emojis. There are all sorts of categories you can choose from including those to make everyone feel included and accounted for. I am curious to see the direction in which emojis are headed perhaps there will be a new way to express ourselves in coming years.
ReplyDeleteHi Talia! I really liked your post about emojis, I never would have thought to link them to Baym's theory. I 100% agree with your thoughts on Emojis and what they add to text conversations. Since it is hard to convey tone in text messages I think that emojis play an important role in conversations that we have on our phones. In addition to emojis I also find myself using a lot of exclamation marks to make sure the person who i'm texting doesn't think i'm being rude or dry. I honestly realized how important emojis are to my friends and I when my parents got IPhones and I realized that they still don't use any emojis and I think they're mad at me all the time! It's crazy the importance that we place on these little digital pictures. I think the fact that there are so many different types and categories of Emojis, as Rachel mentioned, that has led to them become an integral part of any text conversation.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I really enjoyed reading your opinions and thoughts on emoji’s and what they mean in our digital society today. I fully agree with you and your experiences, as they are most definitely similar to mine. We have come to understand emoji’s as a digital form of expression and question an individual’s mood, based on how they are texting you. I know from personal experience that I have thought someone was mad at me, or annoyed, because they sent a text without an emoticon, and I did not know how to interpret it. In fact, they were not mad at all, they just did not feel like putting that much expression and emotion with the text they sent to me. It is interesting to come to realize how much of an impact emoticons have had in our world, and how your mood shifts when receiving an emoticon or not. It is also interesting to look at how emoji’s all mean different things to different people, and when to use these emoji’s depending on the context of the text you are replying too. My point being, is like you said, I would never send my roommate a text asking them for a favour without putting some form of expression on the end, or it may come across as me being rude. This therefore ultimately insinuates the unspoken language of our generation. This was an awesome post! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat points and topic! My experiences with emoji usage do line up with yours and I agree that not only can the lack of using emojis cause one grief as you mentioned, but using the wrong emoji can as well such as your thumbs up example. As you speak on, these rules and norms change depending on who you're talking to.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I have been talking to some new people over text message. As I talk to them, I am left to gage which emojis, if any, I should use while speaking to them. This process is an interesting one as everyone has different connotations to the emojis they use, uses for them, and emojis they favour.
After time, or sometimes very quickly, the emojis that the person I'm talking to uses will start to enter my language back to them, and the ones I use will typically enter their emoji vocabulary as well until some kind of norm is established. It is very interesting to unpack these emoji social cues and give them an extra thought, similar to how I give my usage an extra thought when texting someone new. Thanks for providing a stimulating blog post!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your discussion post this week and related to it a lot. I completely agree with the whole roommate situation. Any time I dare to ask my roommates to clean up or ask them for a favour I am sure to include a playful emoji so I don't sound so harsh or needy. It's crazy to think how many different meanings a little emoji can hold from person to person. For example one of my most used emoji is the 'laughing crying face' emoji and I used it at least 10 times a day to all my contacts. My mom has just recently got into emojis and she noticed I often I used them when texting her so she decided to give it a try. She texted me the other day "Your grandmother's dog passed away yesterday, make sure to send her condolences" and at the end of her text she sent a 'laughing crying' emoji. After that message it was safe to assume she didn't understand the difference between the 'crying' emoji and the 'laughing crying' emoji and I knew I had to give her a little emoji lesson. In her defence she said after she actually looked at the emoji she felt horrible. She said that when she was looking at the emoji quickly it only looked like a crying face emoji and she didn't even know that 'laughing crying' expression was an emoji. I just thought that kind of showed how different everyone sees emojis. I know that she did not mean to send a laughing emoji along with that sad message, however, because she isn't a social media obsessed young adult, she never took the time to distinguish the difference between all emojis.
I completely agree with your post. A big part of having a conversation, is not just based on your words, but how you say it, your facially expressions, your tone and your hand movements. That is often why there is miscommunications over emailing and texting. People can read the same sentence over text and receive it in many different possible ways. Like you said, this is when emojis come in handy. People are able to express there tone, attitude and facial expressions through these emojis, and help end the miscommunication that does occur.
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