Blog 2 - Emojis

      I think that emoji are an extremely important tool in online conversation that I don't use enough. This isn't necessarily a problem with informative writing, such as an academic journal or a quick text letting you know something. However, it can become a big problem with more nuanced writing, such as sarcasm. I don't remember what exactly the paper was, but a few years ago I was writing a research paper for school. I found out that in an experiment, people trying to guess if a written sentence was sarcastic or not were barely better than random chance. When they could hear the sentence read with tone of voice, they fared much better. I'm sorry I can't find what exactly I am referencing!

     Emojis are a way out of this pit of miscommunication. I can communicate exactly what my facial expression is, portraying many more emotions than just words. Again, I really should use emojis more often. I find that I assume that the other person will "know what I mean" when it really isn't that clear. The emoji that I think is most useful is the shruggie!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

     While this is technically a "kaomoji", it serves the same purpose I think. Even though its not on the standard emoji keyboard, I still search this on the internet just to copy and paste this. I think it conveys an emotion that is very difficult to communicate simply through text. It displays a feeling of "oh well", but in a happy way almost. I find it appropriate to use as a way to communicate that you don't know something, but in a more good-natured way than a simple"idk". I don't think that this emoji is necessarily needed, but I think it adds to a conversation. I can't fully explain it, but a shurg and a smile somehow feels better than "idk". 

     Overall, I think that emojis are definitely a useful way for us to express ourselves online. The sentence "I never said she stole my money" has a different meaning depending on which word you put emphasis on. Without context, this sentence can only have its literal meaning. However, with tools like emojis and italics, we can simulate real conversation as best we can. Most text messaging apps don't even have italics, so emojis are all they got! "I never said she stole me money" can become "I never said she stole my money😒". I think this is much clearer. I have had many cases of text taking on implied meaning I never intended and a text's implied meaning falling short. Here's hoping we all avoid this situation.