Emojis Save Lives

+++ title = “03” date = 2019 +++

I’m old enough to remember the emoticon. The series of characters that you can type with a regular keyboard that look like facial expressions. Like this : ) or this ; )

Sentiment is a funny thing. When we talk to each other in person, we are able to use facial cues, tiny micro movements, and other subtle body language to interpret meaning, feeling, and emotion. But now we communicate more and more online, so it’s important that we find ways to insert sentiment into our online conversations. Perhaps even as instinctively as we do with body language though perhaps more intentional.

Because if you’ve ever received an email from your boss that says we need to talk tomorrow, you know that an emoji of some kind might ease the anxiety over the potential of being fired for something you were unaware of that you did to bother your boss.

And in personal relationships, where much of what we build is built on digital interaction, we can use emojis to give each other hints into our actual disposition.

These are tools that convey sentiment in a way that text cannot. In the same manner that facial cues can express sentiment in ways that words cannot.

I’m willing to bet emojis and animated gifs have changed and saved lives.