EMOJI

The article highlights the way in which tiny faces and symbols can represent our feelings and emotions in the new and modern language of the emoji. Emoticons have taken over online language and communication, especially mine, which is something which interested me towards this article.

The article expresses the humorous ways which emoticons can tell a story and how they are used and misused by many people. I found it very amusing when the article listed scenarios of how the emoji would be portrayed in language, using short comedy anecdotes. The article uses first person pronouns within the anecdotes such as 'I' and 'I'm' as a reader you automatically imagine yourself in the scenario's which increases the amusement.

Throughout the English Language course, it has helped me to understand the purpose of a text. Using this article for example, it is used to persuade a reader into buying/watching a movie based around emoji's. This is evident through the use of humour to gain a personal rapport with the reader. Also the use of synthetic personalisation using terms such as 'you' as this reduces the social distance between the context producer and the context receiver i.e. the reader/potential consumer. Anecdotes also contributes to the persuasive effect on the reader, as you are more likely to believe someone if they are talking from experience, which is something featured in this article, and is used to get a reader into purchasing or watching the movie.

The issue of not wanting to use an emoji for the wrong reason should not be an issue at all. Emoji's are used on a personal opinion most of the time. We all have our favourites (eye roll) and some we would never see on our most frequently used (moon face). So why should we abide by the rules of the emoji's which have been enforced by the software developers and limit yourself to the standard language of emoticon jargon. I would like to find out how many people have invented knew and creative ways of adding aliens, dartboards, and the statue of liberty into their everyday online vocabulary.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/27/emoji-true-meanings-explained?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other 

I came across this article on the East Norfolk English Twitter feed. It was originally published on the guardian online, on 27th of July 2015.