What are your favorite emojis?

Before, I used emojis for Yahoo Messenger. Together with MSN, these were the grandfathers of instant messaging (IM). I resumed utilising them with social media, WhatsApp, and other IM apps.

I had a few YM contacts. Some were classmates, one was a clubmate. Others were avid fans of my writing. I was surprised that this lass had invited me. She got my email from our yearbook. We were classmates for all of high school. We rarely spoke. When we did, she always smiled. Looking back, she was dropping hints.

Devil Smile

Once, I was chatting with Gilderoy. I used a devil smiley.

Why?

I’m just asking.

No, why the devil smile?

I just felt like it.

The devil emoji is one of my favourites. It’s got a knowing quality. It makes your chatmate think that they did something. Catches them off-guard. Call it Mona Lisa, if you may. She has history’s most famous smile.

Fighting with Koalas

I also like the koala emoji. The animal is a national treasure, native only to Oz. They’re very cute and cuddly. As their habitat becomes more endangered, fighting for their cause is a no-brainer.

Last week, I talked about my past fanatic. On her Friendster profile, one of her interests was ‘fighting with koalas’.

As mentioned, she went on to study Journalism.

When we holidayed in Melbourne in 2016, I saw a koala in the wild.

Another novel emoji is the alien. I mentioned that my friend was disappointed with The Martian. From the tile, he had hoped to catch some 👽.

My friend chuckled.

He should see War of the Worlds.

Evie

Aside from the latter, I had Evie, a kindred soul. We attended the same Catholic school and were club mates. She was a consistent honour student. Back at uni, we’d chat for hours. We spoke on the phone.

Your voice is very cute, I wrote.

Her reply included a shocked smiley. She thought that I was her former high school classmate, who shared my first name.

Initially, Evie earned a Nursing degree. She passed the board exam. She then studied Law and this time, passed the Bar Exam. Too bad we drifted apart. See also: Wanted: Perfect Chatmate

Thankful

Sometimes, I mobilise the thank you emoji. This is my way of showing appreciation. Whether they’re friends or family, young or older, male or female, it always pays to be grateful.

The thumb up emoji is another common one. I use this on social media posts and messages. This emoji might be simple but it could make someone’s day. It shows your support.

Not for everyone

While useful, there are some situations where emojis aren’t welcome. They should not be found on nonfiction. For instance, they are off-limits on essays, academic papers, and even memoirs. In general, they don’t belong in long-form fiction either. These include novels, plays, and novellas. Some authors use emojis in their work to add some spice. They end up looking like amateurs. Believe me, you won’t see many serious reads that come with emojis.

A while ago, The Emoji Movie came out. Though it fared well at the box office, it won four Raspberries. The flick also has a six percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Emoji is often cited as that year’s worst feature. Likewise, the picture is generally viewed as the worst animated film ever. Having seen the trailer, I predicted that it would be an unoriginal train wreck. It appeared as very similar to Inside Out, another animated picture from two years earlier.

Meanwhile, Searching is one picture that balances emojis and screens with a different premise. John Cho stars as the father of a missing teen. The use of media does not detract from the plot. Though there is a fair use of emoji’s, this adds colour.

To be honest, I won’t be alone in finding emojis girly. Hearts, hugs, and kisses aren’t my thing. If you pair an emoji with every story or post, people will get viewer fatigue. Your likes and views would diminish.

‘Hard To Kill’

Emojis have been around before hashtags and check ins. The platforms may change, from MSN and Facebook to Twitter (X) and TikTok, but emojis have stuck around. Way back, at the onset of smartphones, we only had a limited range of emojis. Only the basic ones were supplied.

However, as phones became bigger and added RAM, the number of emojis shot up. They would even eclipse the old YM or even MSN.

Status update

These days, people’s faces are always buried on their phones. When I grew up, this wasn’t the case. Back then, it was hard to imagine humans going on meltdown after a social media post. A duchess’s outfit didn’t headline the nightly news. Sportscenter was bigger than YouTube highlights. People still wrote handwritten letters and read the dailies.

Emojis are a sign of the times. They are features of our digital age. When a news story appeals to you, you let people know. When you crest Kilimanjaro, you post about it. When you pass your licensure exam, you include a few thank you’s. When you hit back-to-back threes, you employ fire emojis.

These small faces prove that we have surpassed a modern society. Movies like Back to the Future, Blade Runner, and The Matrix have become reality. We are now truly in a new millennium, with hoverboards, Teslas, and plant based food.

Perhaps emojis have endured since they typify our feelings. In short, there’s the human element. Will they outlive the iPhone or the electric car? Will they outlast their current platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and WhatsApp? Only time will tell.