Author: Festim Rizanaj
(The author is a PhD candidate in Journalism at Anadolu University)
Emojis have become an inseparable part of everyday life thanks to smartphones and social networks. This has also changed the way we communicate on social networks, to the point that communication without emojis is causing misunderstandings and is considered colder in cases of communication between couples. Recently, two films have been made about these signs that have replaced written language and are being used by people of all ages.
Sign language
Through the technological development of the Internet, information has begun to be distributed at a faster rate, thus eliminating the problem of time and place (location). Thus, individuals have begun to take their place in the global network and have created the possibility of creating a structure called global society. Manuel Castells says that, “local and global individuals are now networked, connected to each other, living in a network society.
Nowadays, social networks with a semiological communication style are emerging. The interactive structure of social networks has brought semiology to another dimension that has led to the creation of a specific language through expressions called emoji. Semiology is a science that deals with the study of signs (semiosis) and their meaning. Semiology accepts symbols, sounds and behaviors as language, and the signs created from these are used continuously in literature, linguistics and communication.
In social networks, signs occupy an important place. With the spread of smartphones and the development of mobile applications, virtual signs called emojis came to the fore. Japanese mobile communication researcher Shigetaka Kurita began developing emojis, wanting to show that language is not only made up of words, thus enriching the language of communication. The first emoji was used by a mobile device called i-mode from NTT DoCoMo in 1998. What prompted Kurita to discover this was that the internet service on the i-mode mobile device limited messages to 260 characters. The emoji concept, which was created as a result of the merger of “e” meaning visual and “moji” meaning character, plays an important role in creating a specific language of social networks. So, emoji is the legacy of a tradition of pictographic writing that extends back thousands of years, to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese and Japanese ideograms. Emojis are divided into different categories such as: classics, mood, weather, animals, drinks, food, flags, celebrations, sports, entertainment, countries, professions, etc. Through emojis, thoughts and feelings are expressed and thus a global language is created. Emojis with religious symbols have also been added, to thus create a universal language. There are also emojis that are used at the local level and that bring the symbols of that country.
Studies show that emojis are most commonly used in Europe, specifically the smiley and heart emojis. In Russia, romantic emojis, while in Brazil, cat emojis. Turkey uses the heart emoji and the tearful smile emoji more, while in Arabic-speaking countries, the clock and flower emojis. A study conducted in Turkey found that women (80%) use more emojis than men (20%). Meanwhile, the network in which emojis are most commonly used is Facebook (52%), followed by Instagram (30%), and finally Twitter (3%).
Emoji and communication
Since the past, man has used different forms and instruments to express his thoughts and feelings. These instruments have undergone changes at different times. Today, this task has been taken over by the emojis used in social networks. Language is a living and continuous tool that enables communication between individuals. Therefore, language can also be considered an instrument of communication. Language is supported by signs. Emojis used in social networks are defined as virtual signs. Through these signs, individuals can express feelings and thoughts and thus create a virtual communication. Emojis are used at points where language is insufficient. Emojis that have different meanings are used to reinforce the meaning of words and support the message that needs to be conveyed.
Although new forms of emojis are emerging every day, this is not enough because we are trying to convey the feelings of face-to-face communication in written language through emojis. In 2015, the Oxford dictionary chose the word "Tears of joy", which is called an emoji that sheds tears of joy, as the word of the year.
Turkish scholar Ali Murat Kırık believes that due to the different connotations that emojis take on, a dictionary of their meanings should be created. According to him, frequent use has contributed to the degradation of language by reducing communication to only 50–60 words. Because we are returning to a society that does not read, we are preferring the use of visual images. He believes that the only benefit that emojis have brought is the acceleration of communication and that in fact these images will blind the literary side of the “generation Z” who grew up in the midst of technological development, because communication is largely carried out through emojis.
Ali Murat Kırık, emphasizes that just as in the times when communication was through drawings on cave walls, today we have started to communicate and understand each other through images. "Instead of moving forward in the field of communication, we are going backwards. For example, in ancient times when the symbol of a stick was drawn on the walls of a cave, it meant that someone was going hunting."
On the other hand, emoji creator Shigetaka Kurita does not accept that the use of emoji is a sign that people are losing the ability to communicate with words, or that their vocabulary has become limited. People of all ages understand that a single emoji can express more about their emotions than a text. The use of emoji has grown because they fill a need for smartphone users.
According to Ali Murat Kırık, the virtual language created by emojis has united users living in different parts of the world around a common interest, thus dehumanizing the individual. For the individual who is integrated into social networks, the distinction between the real and the virtual has been lost. Through social networks we have entered a process of creating a different culture and identity where emojis play an important role.