Emojis are commonly used in todays computer-based communication.

We often find
an emoji font face pre-installed on many devices which is necessary for the
rendering of the emoji symbol. In the following essay I will try to discuss some key
moments that enabled emojis to circulate through our network and society.

Within the operating systems emojis are often treated as a language. Can emoji
function as a universal (picture) language? What are the dangers of
miscommunication lurking when using emoji?

Nowadays, web-based communication accounts for a significant proportion of our

total communication (at least for most of us). Emails, short messages (SMS,
WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram), Social Networks whenever people use a
computer connected to a network in order to exchange messages between each
other we refer to it as computer-mediated communication (CMC).

Initially, computer-mediated communication was mostly work-related. Often people

would not even have a computer at home, but only at the office, and the
communication was limited to sending business emails. Once home computers
became more popular, it moved away from the working environment and began
revolutionizing the private life of everyone.

Today, we carry a computer in our pocket and use it several times a day to discuss
business and send private messages. In 1989, 15% () of all American households
had a computer, in 2013 this number had increased to nearly 80% (). Therefore,
computer-mediated communication as such has changed, and with the increase of
personal computers it evolved from a work-related medium to a more playful
medium (cf. Jibril & Abdullah).

A Pew report published in 2010 revealed that the text message was the most
frequently used form of communication among teenagers, including face-to-face
communication (cf. Lenhart 2012).

The SIP theory (social information processing), developed in 1992 by Joseph Walter,
explains how people interact with each other and establish relationships in a non-
verbal and computer-dependent, and thus computer-mediated environment. The
theory states that people who communicate with each other via computer (for any
reason whatsoever) actively build a social relationship between themselves.
Furthermore, the theory implies that it takes more time to establish this social
relationship than it would take to establish a similar F2F (face-to-face) relationship.
The lack of non-verbal signals in computer-mediated communication significantly
limits the scope of the exchange, which is why more messages and thus more time
are required. A key aspect of this theory is that users of a medium will adapt to it
and find ways to overcome the shortcomings that result from using it (cf. Walther &
DAddario 2001).
Emoticons

In order to enhance the strictly text-based form of communication by adding a

visual expression, the users invented emoticons (cf. Jibril & Abdullah 2013). These
add a visual element to text-based communication. The term emoticon is a
portmanteau word (frankenword), which is formed by combining the words emotion
and icon.

Sanderson (1993) defines emoticons as a "sequence of ordinary characters you can

find on your computer keyboard" (p. 1). Marcel Danesi specifies:

"An emoticon is often used in an e-mail message or newsgroup posting as a

comment on the text that accompanies it. Common emoticons include

the smiley

:-) or :)

and the winkey

;-)

and the yawn

:-o,

among others (Danesi 2009, S. 110)."

It is said that Scott Fahlman (Professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon

University) composed the first emoticon, a smiling face, on his keyboard in 1982. As
he himself writes:

"Yes, I am the inventor of the sideways smiley face (sometimes called an

emoticon) that is commonly used in E-mail, chat, and newsgroup posts. Or at least
Im one of the inventors." (Scott E. Fahlman)
scott e fahlman

It should be noted that emojis and emoticons are not the same. However, some
programs have been increasingly transforming the text input of emoticon character
combinations into a corresponding graphic symbol (e.g. Word, ICQ, Skype, later
Facebook and Twitter). Which brings us to

Emojis

"The Oxford Dictionary" chose the emoji "face with tears of joy" as word of the year
2015.

But how did this emoji manage to win out over the rule of the word? How did emoji
become this yellow soup, that we mix and share with others on a daily basis?

Emoji-Morph, MWo 2015.

How it all began

Shigetaka Kurita is regarded as the inventor of emojis. Back then he was working for
DoCoMo in Japan on the worlds first mobile internet platform called i-mode (the
goal was to provide internet services for certain mobile phones, such as weather
forecasts, news, reservations). It was the year 1999 (16 years after the first
emoticon appeared). In order to, for instance, declare weather forecasts with a
symbol of a sun instead of fine, Kurita suggested adding emojis to i-mode.

"I passionately proposed to add emoji to i-mode. My proposal was accepted quite
easily since there werent many planners back then. (Nakano 2016)

An additional advantage of emojis was that they could make better use of the
display size, which at that time was rather limited.
At the time, the specs on the devices were really poor, so they werent able to
display images, for example. (Kurita).

The first set of emojis consisted of 172 symbols, was monochrome, and the symbols
were based on a 12 x 12 pixel grid.

Emojis 1.0.

Incidentally, this size of 12 x 12 pixels resulted in the fact that DoCoMos emojis
were not subject to copyright (theyre only 12 blocks by 12 blocks, the company
was told). This, in turn, meant that the small images could be copied, and led to
other companies picking up on them as well, which only increased their rapid
distribution, first within Japan, and a few years later throughout the Western world
as well.

Apple

It was 2007, when Apple released the first iPhone. The global smartphone market
was booming and Apple seemed to understand: in order to crack the Japanese
market, you needed emojis. Willem van Lancker designed several hundred emoji
characters for the Japanese iPhone (iPhone 3GS, 2009). With the firmware 2.2
Japanese users finally gained access to the first Apple emoji keyboard. Technically
savvy users in the Western world also found a way to display the usually hidden
emoji keyboard, by downloading a Japanese app. As of iOS 5 in 2011, the Apple
emoji keyboard was finally available for every iOS user. Hallelujah.

Unicode

I will not go into too much detail, however, the implementation of emojis into
Unicode had a considerable impact on their dissemination. Unicode (started in the
1980s) represents a worldwide standardized system for the coding of text
characters. As such, every character receives a certain number, which is then
translated by the computer. In short: Unicode is the reason that messages, which
are for instance sent from an iPhone to an Android device, are displayed correctly
and vice versa.

As of October 2010, emojis are included into Unicode. This makes it possible for us
to send emojis back and forth, without the recipient receiving a black rectangle with
a question mark (). The inclusion of emojis into the Unicode standard is therefore
a key event, which was necessary to make an exchange of emojis possible in the
first place.

For every emoji the Unicode consortium provides a code and a brief description. For
instance, the Unicode for the emoji is U+1F602, the short description is "FACE
WITH TEARS OF JOY". The actual graphics are not included. That's about the same
as with all other Unicode text characters: For instance, the Unicode for the letter A
is U+0041, the short description is "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A". However, it is not
specified how the letter A has to look exactly. The rendering and the particular
presentation of the letter depends on the font.

Thus, when an emoji is sent, the Unicode code will be interpreted by the receiving
device and converted into the corresponding graphic.

Same same but different

As nearly every smartphone manufacturer uses their own emoji typeset, emojis with
a similar Unicode look different on devices from different manufacturers. Just like
the A in Times New Roman looks different from the A in Helvetica.

Unlike letters, the interpretation of emojis can vary greatly (even with emojis of the
same emoji font). In contrast to letters, emojis do not represent a sound but have
to be interpreted by the recipient. Therefore, emojis entail significant potential for
miscommunication. On the one hand due to the different depiction of the emoji
images for different manufacturers, on the other hand because of their possible
interpretation by the recipient (cf. Miller, Thebault-Spieker, Johnson, Terveen, Hecht
2016).
On the Unicode-Website , you can find a table consisting of all emojis included into
Unicode and the corresponding images of several well-known manufacturers. In the
case of emoji U+1F601, "GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES", it is clear that using
this emoji might easily lead to miscommunication: While the depiction of this emoji
could be interpreted slightly negatively for Apple and Twitter, the depictions by
Google, Samsung, and Windows are clearly very positive.

How the grinning face with smiling eyes" lookes different. Mozilla, Android, Apple,
Microsoft, Samsung, Twitter, HTC, LG und Emoji One.

The calendar icon on Apple products always shows July 17, the day on which apple
launched their software iCal at MacWorld in 2002 (Dewey 2014). This day was also
declared #WorldEmojiDay in 2014: ().

Safe the Date: The World Emoji Day on the 17th of July.

A further general risk of miscommunication can be discovered with another example

of platform-specific depiction: The PILE OF POO emoji. If viewed on Apple
devices it seems to beam with joy, on Microsoft it is faceless, on Samsung it merely
has eyes, and on Google devices it was circled by flies until Android 5.0. The origin
of this emoji can be found in Japan, where it means something along the lines of
luck (the Japanese word for poo [unko] begins with the same oon-sound as a word
that means luck. The Japanese clearly enjoy this pun and it is not uncommon to
give away a golden pile of poo as a nice gesture [cf. Healy 2015]).

Shat plan: "Pile of Poo"-Emoji bei Android 4, Android 5, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung,
Twitter, HTC, LG und Emoji One.

Emojis can, therefore, have very different meanings in different cultures. They are
simultaneously pictograms and ideograms. In the Western World, for instance, the
eggplant emoji is often used for penis, the peach emoji for vagina.

To activate the emoji keyboard on the iPhone, you have to select it in settings >
general > keyboard > keyboards. Emoji can be found between Danish and English.
To then use them in a chat, simply click on the world icon and select emoji as
language.

In iOS emoji is (obviously) a language.

Emoji as unversal language

Can emoji function as universal (visual) language? Funded by crowdfunding, the

book Moby Dick has been completely translated into emojis. The result is Emoji
Dick. On emojipoems.tumblr.com emojis are used to write poems. For this purpose
Emoji Works' emoji keyboard, which simplifies the typing of emojis, could be rather
helpful.

firstlinesemojidick

The first line from Emoji Dick: 'Call me Ischmael'.

Are these modern hieroglyphs the beginning of a new language? The co-founder
and president of Unicode Mark Davis concedes that emojis could one day evolve
into something more. He would not call it a "language" at the moment but it could
develop into one, like Chinese did (cf. Bromwich 2015).

When we use emoji in a text it is often to supplement or enhance the writing.

Similar to gestures in a face-to-face-conversation. Rarely our natural language is
ever limited to speech alone. Because of this language is called "mulit-modal". But
emoji are not only used as embellishments by their users. Often they are strung
together into a sequence which can convey meaning. But to function as a language,
emoji would need a key component: grammar (cf. Cohn 2015).