Emojis – the virtual language

If you are an active smartphone user, and the odds are that you are – unless you are the last person on earth using a vintage blackberry – then you must be quite familiar with emojis. Originating in Japan, emojis are now available in every messaging app, on every platform and is one of the most used languages in the world.

But you are right. Emojis cannot be a language! Or can it? It might surprise you to learn that the emoji with "tears of joy" was recently named the "word of the year" by Oxford Dictionary. So why would the people at Oxford Dictionary crown something the word of the year when you cannot even spell it? 

The answer is simple. Emojis have taken over as our number one source of expression across the virtual sphere. You can now use emojis to add colours and emotion to tame letters and sentences. Using emojis you can let your friends know that you are getting married, eating cake, blowing up and also that you are now madly in love with a kitten, that you are the devil and a personal favourite, that you tamed a dolphin.

Yes, there are hundreds of emojis available and they range from pets to faces to people to objects and much more. Whilst all these options might seem unnecessary to you, if used creatively you can narrate all kinds of stories using only the emojis in your phone. No wonder emojis are the first source of online communication. How else would you be able to snarl, be corny, look unsettled, be able to give people the side-eye, blush and look sarcastic, all using just the screen of your phone?

In a world where words might sometimes be taken too seriously, emojis provide a more casual, subtle and perhaps a cheeky approach to online expression. 

By Naveed Naushad