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Last week we celebrated World Emoji Day on July 17 for the role emojis play on digital communication. The event was initiated in 2014 by Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia, to honor the significant impact of emojis. In this regard, I have two questions for you;

  1. do you ever check for the meaning of an emoji prior to selecting it and using it in a text message?
  2. as a way of understanding other people’s preferred digital communication styles, do you ever inquire from someone to find out if they are okay with emojis in the text messages, or emails that you send to them?

Emoticons have revolutionized how we communicate and are mostly used in text and social media communication. Even though email platforms added emoticons in their applications, I see a few emojis in email communications.

People today are fast (lack of patience), pay less attention to listen carefully to what others say and to muse it when it comes to face to face communication. In addition, the differences in language and culture can hugely influence your communication with others that is where Emoji’s come in handy to be an effective communication tool.

Our brains process images like facial expressions much faster than words. Emoji’s can help you convey more with fewer words, and do it more clearly which helps you keep messages to under 160 characters.

What’s great is that you can quickly pull up an emoji keyboard on your computer, whether inside Text Request or anywhere else online.

On surface, emojis are funny and visual representations of various emotions & feelings however, they can as well miserably fail and spell doom if used unprofessionally.

Well, Emojis convey messages in elegantly simple ways however, did you know that using emoji’s to communicate could put you in hot soup? Here is how….

Examples of cases that made users of emojis (emoticons) regret having discovered their use include;

  • A teacher was banned for 10 years over eggplant emoji: Armando Alejo was a teacher at south Miami High School in Florida, US, until he was fired he was found guilty of sending a sexual message to a student. The messages in question was an emoji of an eggplant which the court ruled was used to represent the male genitalia.
  • A 22-year old man was sentenced to 3 months in prison for texting his ex-girlfriend an emoji in the form of a pistol, in the first such ruling of its kind in France.
  • Feb 18, 2019 – In 2017, a couple in Israel was charged thousands of dollars in fees after a court ruled that their use of emoji to a landlord signaled an intent to rent his apartment.
  • A farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada was fined a hefty sum for using the emoji after he was sent a contract by text message. Chris Achter argued it was to acknowledge receipt, but a judge ruled it amounted to a contractual agreement. He must now pay C$82,000 ($61,610; £48,310) for failing to fulfil the contract. Source, BCC News Toronto

And many more cases that have gotten people fired from their jobs, ruined relationships, and ruined group chats, due to over use of emoticons in unprofessional ways. This is because, Emojis are not developing the basic communication skills that humans have used since….. they actually simplify a way of expression of feelings and saves time communicating through technology.

You may want to rethink the next thumbs-up emoji you send, as it could be interpreted as a digital signature.

According to Eric Goldman, “Between 2004 and 2019, there was an exponential rise in emoji and emoticon references in US court opinions, with over 30% of all cases appearing in 2018, Emoji are now showing up as evidence in court more frequently with each passing year. They show up as evidence, the courts have to acknowledge their existence, but often they’re immaterial,” Goldman says.

Last thoughts

Well, I understand we are from different generations however, you may need to be cautious while using emoji’s to communicate depending on who, when, why, where, to whom, and how you communicate. Since digital inventions nowadays don’t come with manuals – we should then leverage our communication etiquette as we use emojis. As the case with acronyms, it is important to understand the meaning of something or a particular emoji before using them in a text /comment/email/group chat/ etc. to ensure that you use the right emoji’s as intended.

A lot has changed on the way we communicate and perhaps no one has time and the patience to write a long text messages or will be willing to read a long text as well. Emoji’s are here to stay and can be the best way to communicate as fast as we can and express our emotions. This blog is meant to persuade you to use emojis where appropriate.

“The world is changed by your example, not your opinionLindsay Eavenson.

“Together, We Work Smart”

Originally published here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/other-side-using-emojis-veronica-rose-cisa/?

Author

Veronica

Published Author | Director, One In Tech, Foundation | Director, ISACA Board of Directors | IT Audit Professional | Speaker | Member of National Association for Corporate Directors | Vlogger | CISO | Global Mentor | Data Privacy Solutions Engineer | Award Winner in the Cybersecurity industry

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