Emoticons and the Emoji’s

Emoticons and the Emoji’s

From the very first post “What’s it about Blog Posts, Facebook Pages and Emoji’s” I had shared about my experience where a specific disconnect of the reader to these finer elements of Social Media Posting and connectivity with each other that lead to the reader missing out on the best content.

With due respect to all readers, patrons, well wishers, I have already mentioned that it is difficult to identify if this happens due to ignorance, lack of awareness, of matter-of-fact habitual behavior of many readers to act as they do. We cannot but go around correcting someone or their habits, but in my sequel of posts I have tried to make a humble effort to portray the various elements of this divine connection that allows both the writer and the reader to get the best out of the content that is shared, without hurting any emotions either ways.

In this concluding sequence of the key elements of the full cycle that was mentioned in my first post, I will deal with a rather enjoyable, but often misunderstood element of the whole process of emoting your expressions.

We have read about Blog Posts, Facebook Profiles, Facebook Pages, and Facebook Groups. In all these cases you will observe a common element that is most used albeit maybe wrongly, in excess of what is required or irrelevant to the posts or content.

It is very clear that many of them are impulsive habits of many members, to just be a part of any post by just putting Emoji’s without even commenting on it; either to save time or if they feel that suffices their expression of their reactions. Many of them I have clearly observed have put the wrong Emoji’s thereby even hurting the sentiments of the writer albeit unintentionally.

So let’s try and see what these Emoticons or Emoji’s are and how they should be used so as to freely express your reactions and emotions while ensuring that you don’t hurt someone or even may I daresay embarrass yourself.

An Emoji is a pictogram, logo gram, ideogram or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of Emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from typed conversation. Some examples of Emoji are 😂, 😃, 🧘🏻♂️, 🌍, 🌦️, 🍞, 🚗, 📞, 🎉, ❤️, 🍆, 🏁, among many others.

Emoji’s are slightly different from their predecessors.

Emoticons - Emoticons are punctuation marks, letters, and numbers used to create pictorial icons that generally display an emotion or sentiment.

Courtesy Britannica it is so well narrated in where they so nicely differentiate and explain about the difference between Emoticons and Emoji’s. They say...

“The Internet has greatly changed the way we communicate. Since body language and verbal tone do not translate in our text messages or e-mails, we’ve developed alternate ways to convey nuanced meaning. The most prominent change to our online style has been the addition of two new-age hieroglyphic languages: emoticons and Emoji.

Let’s start with the older of the two: the emoticon.

Emoticons are punctuation marks, letters, and numbers used to create pictorial icons that generally display an emotion or sentiment. (That’s actually where the portmanteau “emoticon” comes from: emotional icon.) Oh, and because of the limits of our keyboard, most emoticons need to be read sideways.

Emoji (from the Japanese e, “picture,” and moji, “character”) are a slightly more recent invention. Not to be confused with their predecessor, Emoji are pictographs of faces, objects, and symbols. You’re probably familiar with the distinct style of Apple’s Emoji: yellow cartoony faces with various expressions, as well as families, buildings, animals, food objects, mathematical symbols, and more.” 

So that suffices what we want to deal with. It is a simple expression of our reactions or emotions in graphic images that we feel convey the message you want to express.

But this is where many go wrong, in a hurry to express themselves. I will not take a training class in how and where to use which specific of those Emoji’s but suffice to say that we should be careful in identifying the right Emoji’s and posting it on the relevant post.

A common error is using the “Like” option in Facebook Posts in a wrong way. Many cannot differentiate when to use a Thumbs up Like, Love, Care, Laugh, Wow, Sad or Angry Emoji’s seen just below each post. The Thumbs up “Like” is the most used and confused to many who feel it is used to express that they have read the post, rather than to express they have liked it. The others are more specific so can be less confusing. But a subtle difference between the use of a Like, Love Heart, and Care sign can make a big difference. Incidentally what I intend to convey is that when using Emoticons, Emoji’s or even GIF’s be very careful to read the full content of the posts, and not only the Image that you see above the post. 

It could make a hell of a difference between what you have in mind to express and what you have conveyed.
Many a times readers are in so much of a hurry when clicking on any of the Emoji’s that, invariable happening due to slow internet speeds or wrong clicks they happen to post a totally wrong Emoji which many a times they even may not have noticed in a hurry.

Try avoiding such errors. Take your time to read the post, decide on your views or your comments, if possible put in a short comment and add Emoji’s to enhance your expression only if needed.

Emoticons and Emoji’s have been created to make your expression faster without taking the time to comment in writing, but please ensure that you express the right emotions.

My last and concluding post will be about “Getting it all Right”.

This basically would deal with a proper connection and sequence any reader should follow in a way that you not only read the full Blog Post for its content, comment, suggest or give your review in the form of written comments or expressions in the form of Emoticons or Emoji’s and share to like minded friends and family so that the content reaches more people.

After all our intention is to share quality content to readers, irrespective of which medium you may be using. 

So let’s make this an enjoyable and fruitful experience!

Cheers to good reading!