Texting is a relatively new way for us to communicate, only becoming common within the last 10 years or so. Before that, you likely had to shell out a lot of money just to have a couple of hundred texts a month – if that. Texting wasn’t cheap, but it was an extremely convenient way to communicate. Because of that convenience texting eventually came to be what it is today – practically free and so common that it’s rare to find somebody who doesn’t text.
Texting is awesome. It’s a great way to communicate with somebody whenever it’s convenient, and also discreetly. It’s my personal favorite way to communicate for everyday conversations because I’m better at writing my words out than speaking them, and texting gives you the opportunity to think about what you want to say before you say it.
As simple as text messaging is, it has also evolved over the years. Once upon a time you couldn’t send a picture through a text, and now you can. You used to be able to only read one text message at a time (usually with your “Inbox” and “Sent” being in different folders, which wasn't fun to deal with when trying to remember the context of a conversation stretched out over a long period of time) and now there are threaded messages that allow you to see the back-and-forth between you and a recipient. You used to have to get creative with your smilies, such as :) and :(, and now you have these brilliant things called Emojis.
I’m a big fan of Emojis. Sometimes there are things that are better left to these tiny and oftentimes completely irrelevant images, and they're fun. I’ve always wanted to send my friends a tiny pixelated crocodile, and now I can do it whenever I want. And whenever I’m chillin’ down at the local Chipotle and I want to accentuate the fact that I’m about to have a delicious burrito bowl, I can send them an Emoji of this sweet new burrito they just added in iOS 9. You know, the important things in life.
But seriously, I do love Emojis. I think they’ve become a revolutionary tool for text messaging. I find them to be important in relaying a proper tone through our easily misunderstood text messages. As we increasingly find ourselves communicating through the written word rather than face-to-face conversations with facial expressions and tone of voice, something as simple as Emojis do a good job of conveying that missing tone. Like the threaded messages and MMS, they’ve become a staple part of mobile at this point.
My only problem with Emojis is how they don’t always translate well from one platform to another. For example, the popular smiling doodle Emoji on iOS 9 doesn’t translate so happily to Hangouts users. So when you think you’re being cute and just sending a happy doodle, your Hangouts buddy just gets a regular old steaming pile of business. No smiling, no fun, just business. A couple of other faces don’t translate so well either, and the yellow heart on iOS somehow translates to a prickly heart in Hangouts.
Aside from that, I stand by my opinion that, despite the fact that many see Emojis as an immature form of communication (they are rather youthful, I’ll give it that), I simply find them important for conveying intended tone. I’ve had far too many conversations end up lost in translation without them.
