I feel like emojis can serve as useful tone markers. Like /s but for many different emotions and intentions than just sarcasm. “It’s raining today 😒” comes off differently than “it’s raining today 😊” does.
I also feel some people just use them for visual noise, and because emojis are “the thing the kids do” semi-relevant emojis get spammed where they aren’t needed. For example, “look at my cat 👀🐱🐾”. That annoys me. I admit maybe it’s just annoyance with no actual reasoning behind it. It might be annoyance a lot of other people share given how unpopular emojis were on Reddit.
I don’t think we need to be as emojiphobic as Reddit, but we probably ❓ don’t 🙅 want them spammed ✉️✉️✉️❌😠 everywhere 🌎🌍🌏 either.
These are essentially my thoughts. They’re helpful for indicating context (tone/expression/sentiment). The goal of language is communication; words alone can struggle with that. Well-placed emojis help improve communication. Numerous emojis breaking up sentences makes them harder to read; imo it impairs communication.
I also don’t like the idea of policing others’ use of a harmless sub-dialect of online communication just because one decides not to use it themselves. I personally don’t use or enjoy the ‘emojis’ that are just ‘fun graphics we like’ (most Discord custom emotes are this). Nor do I like that filter where 1-3 emojis are inserted after basically every single word. But that’s because it’s not my online dialect; it doesn’t mean people who use emojis that way are ‘wrong’.
Different platforms have different ‘accents’, and emojis are only one example of that. I find the numerous dialects of online English to be a fascinating topic that isn’t often considered.
Sometimes I’d feel sad that a trait of say, Tumblr’s dialect didn’t have a Reddit equivalent: Tumblr uses punctuation, capitalisation, and even typos as a tone indicator. A Redditor doesn’t know the different tones implied amongst these, even though most Tumblr users do:
no. stop
no stop
noo staaaaahp
noolkjaflakud STOP
No. Stop.
NO STOP
I can tell which of these are vaguely upset, genuinely upset, or pretending to be upset in a few different ways. Reddit doesn’t have that, because it expects everybody to write with formal grammar all the time, including not ‘allowing’ emojis as tone indicators. I suspect that formal writing style probably contributes to why so many comments are read in bad faith as smug/adversarial. 😢
I find the numerous dialects of online English to be a fascinating topic that isn’t often considered.
Thank you for bringing this up, it’s an interesting read!
I liked Reddit possibly because my natural online dialect leans more formal, though I also understand Tumblr dialect and use it if I see the majority of others doing it.
On one hand I agree with not policing online dialects, but on another I’m thinking about common-sense consensus and the value of people speaking in an agreed-upon way to avoid misinterpretation and friction. Using emojis was never against the rules on Reddit even if people downvoted it a lot and discouraged it because they did not like it. Typing Like This All The Time Is Also Extremely Annoying, And At Least On Reddit Most People Would Agree With Me, Although It Could Be My Own Personal Biases And Judgment Towards Others Who Don’t Speak Like Me Weaseling Its Way In. If enouGh of a coMmUnity deCides they doN ‘t. Like a CertaiN way of tyPing yoU end up with a rule enforced by practice if not by the actual rules, and by then why not make it ironclad in the actual rules so long as you allow for people learning the English language?
I feel like emojis can serve as useful tone markers. Like /s but for many different emotions and intentions than just sarcasm. “It’s raining today 😒” comes off differently than “it’s raining today 😊” does.
I also feel some people just use them for visual noise, and because emojis are “the thing the kids do” semi-relevant emojis get spammed where they aren’t needed. For example, “look at my cat 👀🐱🐾”. That annoys me. I admit maybe it’s just annoyance with no actual reasoning behind it. It might be annoyance a lot of other people share given how unpopular emojis were on Reddit.
I don’t think we need to be as emojiphobic as Reddit, but we probably ❓ don’t 🙅 want them spammed ✉️✉️✉️❌😠 everywhere 🌎🌍🌏 either.
These are essentially my thoughts. They’re helpful for indicating context (tone/expression/sentiment). The goal of language is communication; words alone can struggle with that. Well-placed emojis help improve communication. Numerous emojis breaking up sentences makes them harder to read; imo it impairs communication.
I also don’t like the idea of policing others’ use of a harmless sub-dialect of online communication just because one decides not to use it themselves. I personally don’t use or enjoy the ‘emojis’ that are just ‘fun graphics we like’ (most Discord custom emotes are this). Nor do I like that filter where 1-3 emojis are inserted after basically every single word. But that’s because it’s not my online dialect; it doesn’t mean people who use emojis that way are ‘wrong’.
Different platforms have different ‘accents’, and emojis are only one example of that. I find the numerous dialects of online English to be a fascinating topic that isn’t often considered.
Sometimes I’d feel sad that a trait of say, Tumblr’s dialect didn’t have a Reddit equivalent: Tumblr uses punctuation, capitalisation, and even typos as a tone indicator. A Redditor doesn’t know the different tones implied amongst these, even though most Tumblr users do:
I can tell which of these are vaguely upset, genuinely upset, or pretending to be upset in a few different ways. Reddit doesn’t have that, because it expects everybody to write with formal grammar all the time, including not ‘allowing’ emojis as tone indicators. I suspect that formal writing style probably contributes to why so many comments are read in bad faith as smug/adversarial. 😢
Thank you for bringing this up, it’s an interesting read!
I liked Reddit possibly because my natural online dialect leans more formal, though I also understand Tumblr dialect and use it if I see the majority of others doing it.
On one hand I agree with not policing online dialects, but on another I’m thinking about common-sense consensus and the value of people speaking in an agreed-upon way to avoid misinterpretation and friction. Using emojis was never against the rules on Reddit even if people downvoted it a lot and discouraged it because they did not like it. Typing Like This All The Time Is Also Extremely Annoying, And At Least On Reddit Most People Would Agree With Me, Although It Could Be My Own Personal Biases And Judgment Towards Others Who Don’t Speak Like Me Weaseling Its Way In. If enouGh of a coMmUnity deCides they doN ‘t. Like a CertaiN way of tyPing yoU end up with a rule enforced by practice if not by the actual rules, and by then why not make it ironclad in the actual rules so long as you allow for people learning the English language?