Page 10 - Journeys C1+ (Student Book)

1 Communication

Are emojis the new universal language of to express why they are feeling that way, or the level
communication? One benefit of using one of the more of anger they are feeling. And with an average of
than 2,800 emojis currently available is that they are six billion emojis being used every day on various
universally recognisable, quick and easy to use and messaging apps, that is a lot of emotions which are
brighten up your message screen. being superficially shared.

When Shigetaka Kurita first started inventing emojis in On the other hand, for people who ramble on and
the late 1990s, he had no idea they would become so send lengthy text or voice messages, their friends
widely used by mobile phone users around the world. might prefer to receive a simple visual representation
He wanted to create a series of images which instantly of their latest adventure.
communicated a simple idea or emotion. He never
Not everyone is so happy about the growing trend of
expected his creation to become so popular, but is
pleased to see the effect it’s had on communication, emoji conversations though. People sometimes find
with most symbols being interpreted in the same themselves spending ages creating the perfect emoji
way across different languages and cultures. For sentence, then realise it would have been quicker just
international communication, the unambiguous to type the sentence as text. That said, most people
nature of emojis is making conversations easier to do not use emojis to substitute all the text in an entire
follow, and in fact, the use of emojis is changing the conversation. Sometimes people might use them
cultural meaning of some gestures. With the thumbs-up instead of typing individual words, as responses in
symbol frequently being used to mean OK on many conversations or to replace punctuation.
messaging apps or to show a “like” on social media There are also concerns from some education
posts, it’s now become accepted as a positive gesture authorities that today’s teenagers have poorer
in parts of the world where it previously had a negative academic writing skills than in the past. Some
connotation. teachers argue teens’ over-dependence on emojis is
leading them to write essays and other texts in more
Furthermore, an individual’s use of emojis tends to be
fairly consistent. Rather than erratically using different colloquial tones, when a more formal register would be
emojis in response to similar situations, people have more appropriate. Others refute this claim, seeing the
their favourites which they use most frequently. And increase in emoji use as a natural step in the process
when you’re in a situation where you cannot utter a of communication.
word aloud or risk getting caught sending a wordy text, At the end of the day, whether you are a fan of emojis or
an emoji can work perfectly. not, we cannot deny that communication and mobile
phone technology are evolving. With apps for almost
However, some people argue that using emojis limits
the effectiveness of our communication and that we everything nowadays, from speech therapy apps for
are losing the ability to put our emotions into words. people who stutter to simultaneous translation apps,
Whilst an angry face instantly conveys the emotion the world of communication is changing. Are you
the sender is feeling, it does not allow for that person ready for what comes next?

8