University College Research says Emojis is Internet's Language replacing English in Communication

“This harks back to a caveman form of communication where a single picture can convey a full range of messages and emotions. In the future, less words and letters will be used in messaging as pictures and icons take over the text speak language”

Professor of Modern English Literature at of University College John Sutherland, explaining the transition from texting to emojis in IM on Mobile Social Networks

I know a lot about smartphones, which is the main reason why I dislike them so much as opined in my blog article entitled “The Reason why I don't like Smartphones - Location Privacy and How to disable Location Services on Android and iOS”.

In fact, I know enough to do smartphone review of such products as the Samsung Galaxy S6 which was launched in Jamaica at the Jamaica Pegasus on Friday April 24^th 2015 as detailed in my Geezam blog article entitled “The Future is Now as Samsung Galaxy S6 launches in Jamaica”.

However, I'm baffled by the latest trend towards the use of emojis as a replacement for words in online communications as noted in “Emojis blamed as words lose out to pictures”, published 01.05.2015 BBC News.

He did a study of some two thousand (2000) parents for Samsung and discovered that the vast majority of them did not understand the meaning of not only acronyms that they used in their conversations, but emoticons and now Emojis.

The results as detailed in the article “Social media drives fastest ever evolution of English”, published 1 May 2015, ITV are more amusing than shocking:

1.      86% of parents felt teenagers spoke an entirely different language on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

2.      43% said they did not understand the term “fleek” which means looking good

3.      40% said they did not understand the term “FOMO” (fear of missing out) and “bae” (a term of affection used for one's significant other)

Parents, who are mostly Generation X’s (ages 28 to 45) were, surprisingly, unfamiliar with commonly used acronyms on Social Media which have been around since the late 90's such as:

1.      ICYMI means “in case you missed it”

2.      TBT means “throwback Thursday”"

3.      NSFW means “not safe for work”

In fact, as a challenge to yourself, read this list of emojis and name the movie that each set of emoji's represent.

So what’s fueling this trend? Are we becoming more like the Chinese or even the Egyptians, whose language was and is symbolic? And is this going to be the language of the internet in the future?

Emojis replaces English symbols in communication - Age of Emojis Trend towards symbolic Language in Social Media

According to the author of the study Professor of Modern English Literature John Sutherland of University College, that may indeed be the case, as symbols allows us to say more while logged into those Social Media Websites on these smaller screen communication devices, quote: “The use of audio and visual messaging has become more commonplace with the soaring popularity of social media and instant messaging apps such as Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. We are moving to a more pictographic form of communication with the increasing popularity of emoticon”.

He makes a comparison to the days when men lived in caves and evolved their first proto language based on pictograms of what they saw in the world around them, basically the first Social Postings on a wall, quote: “This harks back to a caveman form of communication where a single picture can convey a full range of messages and emotions. In the future, fewer words and letters will be used in messaging as pictures and icons take over the text speak language”.

Good to note that pictorial language evolved into higher languages that were spoken, with pictorial languages such as Sumerian, Assyrians and later Egyptian and Asiatic Language such as Chinese and Korean evolving later on. Meanwhile, the West went with the Phoenicians, whore apparently loved simpler phonetic system that used a string of symbols with consonant and vowel sounds to creature words.

But the spread of smartphones and Tablets as noted in my blog article entitled “IDC Stats suggest Tablet Freefall in 2015 – How to sell Tablets using built-in Keyboards and Carrier Unlocked SIM Cards”  and their cumbersome typing method using touch typing means a more efficient means of conveying a message is needed.

Enter the Age of Emojis as heralded by the Katy Perry Song Roar.

Emojis in Social Media - Pictorial language that unites Millennial Globally in one common Tongue

Emojis are basically pictorial representation of words or phrases combined to make sentences.

The video below makes it a little clearer.

They usually come built into your smartphone but some apps allow you to make your own custom emojis like the app Emoji as reported in my blog article entitled “Imoji for Designing iMessage Emoji – How Japanese Imoji Sticker trend is Rising as Creative Community and Celebrities can Monetize Stickers”.

They are mostly used on Mobile Social Networks that have an IM (Instant Messenger) section such as Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook Messenger and Meerkat and Periscope, the latest to join the battle for Social Media supremacy as noted in my blog article entitled “@Facebook Messenger Free Video Calling - @Meerkat and @periscopeco's new competitor as @Digicel_Jamaica defends against @WhatsApp”. 

In fact Snapchat has now incorporated them into Friend Emojis that lets you know your friend and who's seeking your attention as described in my blog article entitled “@Snapchat Best Friends is Friend Emojis - How @Beyonce’s explains why @KimKardashian Needs Love as Moon says More Light”. 

More recently, Apple has upgraded their list of emojis in iOS 8.3 to include ones that are more culturally and racially diverse, as nobody has a yellow face, the original colour of most emoticons and emojis as explained in the article “Diverse thumbs up! Emojis with different skin tones finally here”, published 8 Apr 2015, BBC News and “How to access the new diverse emoji in iOS 8.3”, published April 8, 2015 by Jason Cipriani, CNET News.    

The usage of emojis has now totally replaced the usage of words or even acronyms and emoticons in messages allowing persons who don't even speak the same language to communicate as noted in the informal test mentioned in the article “Emojis versus language, the Newsbeat test”, published 14 Apr 2015 By Anna Doble and Amelia Butterly, BBC News. 

Acronyms from Texting evolved into emoticons and then Emojis - How Emojis are becoming the Universal language of the Internet

Acronyms and emoticons were really made necessary because of the texting craze back in the early 2000 which IM eventually replaced as noted in my blog article entitled “CTIA reports a 5% decline in US Texting as Instant Messaging ramps up - WhatsApp's now Top Gun as The Dead Zone leads Star Trek Into the Darkness”.

To quote Professor of Modern English Literature John Sutherland of University College, this was because of the limitations of handsets back in the early 2000 as well as the high cost of Data plans, quote: “The limitation of characters on old handsets were a key factor in the rise of acronyms in text messaging such as TXT, GR8 and M8. However, technological evolution has meant that these words are now effectively extinct from the text speak language and are seen as 'antique text speak'.”

But acronyms were really just words using traditional letters; emoticons on the other hand have carried over into this now pictorial hieroglyphic IM world and have basically merged with emojis, becoming more detailed and composed less from letters from your smartphone's virtual keypad.

All this doesn’t bode well for WhatsApp Voice Calling feature that was launched in April 2015 as noted in my blog article entitled “WhatApp Voice Calling comes to Version 2.12.1 - How Wi-Fi Calling by Proxy coming to Jamaica with Features to Boot” as the trend is more towards communicating visually, with Video and emojis being  part of that trend.

Will this be the language of the future?

I believe so and I won't be surprised if in the future, they start offering course in the interpretation of acronyms and emojis. It may soon be used in the delivery of News, not to mention see more usage of the communication format in advertising and marketing of products to Millennials (ages 18 to 28) and Teenagers (ages 13 to 17).