#inserttiredfaceemoji

I grew up always having an Android phone. Everyone in high school used to make fun of my Samsung S6 because the iPhone was apparently waaaaaay better. When I would ask them why, the first reason was ALWAYS: “because the emojis look so much nicer, and there’s so many more”. I would just roll my eyes, did emojis really matter back then? Apparently, they did and still do now.

But I did agree with my friends, the iPhone emojis did look a bit nicer in my opinion. So I ended up getting an iPhone as my next phone, just for a change. That’s when I started to really appreciate the function of Emoji. As Sternbergh said this new way of communicating “will not replace all the old ways, but it can augment them and help us muddle through”. This made sense to me when I started to meet new people in University, sending emojis along with our messages made the conversation online somewhat more personal. In hoping the person receiving the message would feel the same emotion. For example, when we would’ve talked about UW Orientation Week, we would always use the fire emoji, because it was definitely, not literally, lit. Or we whenever we had an inside joke of something that happened, we would use the Cry Tears of Joy Face to convey that it was funny. 

In other situations though, I agree with Sternbergh when he says the meanings of emoji, such as their “secret” meaning are always changing. I remember not too long ago, I saw a screen shot from somebody’s phone. Deeply confused and slightly disturbed, there was a bunch of eggplant emojis and peach emojis that this person was sending and receiving. Being the observer outside of the conversation, I was like “Why are you talking about peaches and eggplants, I don’t get it”. When it was explained to me, that it was used in a “sexual” context, I finally understood and awkwardly walked away.