Emoji’s and Emoticons!

Emoji’s and Emoticons!

©Allen Merritt (2016)

I used to have a rubbery refrigerator magnet with a lot of various facial expressions printed on it. This was a long time ago. It must have had up to 24 different faces on it. Each face was printed in red on a white background in cartoon fashion. They represented various states of feeling or emotion.

Were you excited, angry, sad, sick, happy, anxious, surprised or bored?

There was also a separate magnetic piece that appeared like a red border for which you could maneuver, much like a game piece on a board game. Anyway, you could move it around and place it over whichever face you wanted to and designate your emotion or feeling for the day. I thought this was a healthy and fun way to recognize where I was in any given moment as opposed to sweeping everything under a rug and keeping things bottled up inside. This refrigerator magnet was a quick mental fix and psychotherapy session to get to the heart of things and be able to move on with the day.

This came to mind as I was thinking about emoji’s. They’ve become quite popular over the years especially with social media becoming increasingly main stream. Interestingly, before emoji’s were emoji’s they were simply a cartoon smiley face. They were printed on paper, made into buttons and many other products.

 As technology advanced and became electronic in nature other versions replaced the singular smiley face to represent all aspects of expression and became emoticons. 

You could type a facial expression by using the keys on your computer...80)   ;)   :) 

Of course, you'd have to turn your head sideways to make out the face.

They now have advanced to digital graphics and include hand gestures; ultimately culminating into emoji’s galore. There must be a thousand of them now. It’s like a revolution. Emoji’s are a movement!

Moreover, emoji’s are also a form of communication. You can send someone a “wink” to show you like them. You can tell the world you’re “drunk” or “enraged”. How about the one with cool sunglasses? Got to love that one! Maybe you would like to send a smiley face with your tongue hanging out the side of your mouth. There are so many options to consider…and get your point across. For what it’s worth, I think it all started with a simple smiley face; at least that’s my take on it.

I believe these emoticon advancements give heightened meaning to the idea of ‘smile at someone and you’ll get a smile back’; or, ‘laugh and the whole world laughs with you’.

Imagine all of this most likely began with a smiley face drawn on a piece of paper. Maybe it went further back with hieroglyphics. Could it be that the monkey’s that see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil were connected to this idea in some way? Who knows!

In my opinion, these little emoticons are fun, healthy and positive additions to our communications and how we put a spark into our day, as long as they do not replace real communication. Don’t forget to pick up the phone and call someone. Write a note or letter. Keep a journal. Real communication can never be replaced by short cuts.

In any case, emoji’s are here to stay, don’t you think? They are worth enjoying and can help liven up our day.

Speaking of livening up the day, here are a couple of song links to celebrate life and living!

Put on a Happy Face:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_CE7GqqrvY

Get Happy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw&list=PLzB0cFXAfg-_9cJh35gxDO8T8lfyIo48l&index=1

Enjoy living life On a Positive Note!

Cheers!