No, it doesn’t. The function of emoji is to fulfil some of the non-verbal communication that we obtain in face-to-face interactions.
Much of our interpersonal communications rely on facial expression and intonation (where pitch and contour can change the meaning of what you’re saying) and so on – these are known as para-linguistic cues, or ‘paralanguage’.
"The point with emoji is that it’s doing for digital text and digital-speak what paralanguage and kinesics do for spoken language."
Paralanguage is a key way in how we communicate how we feel about what we’re saying. If you think about Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy saying “I will enjoy it” with a monotone voice, then you’d know that’s ironic.
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Another important element in interactions is kinesics, which has to do with body language, gesture and facial expression. Actually, between 65 and 70% of social meaning, on some estimates, derives not from language and but from other non-verbal communication cues.
"You have no way of knowing, when you read an email, if the sender is sipping a martini, in chilled-out-fashion out by the pool in the sunshine, or ranting in a fit of pique in midnight rage."
The point with emoji is that it’s doing for digital text and digital-speak what paralanguage and kinesics do for spoken language. So emoji does not dumb down anything – in fact, it’s making us better communicators, and helps us avoid the ‘angry jerk’ phenomenon in text speak.
To explain what I mean by the ‘angry jerk – a phrase I use in my forthcoming book The Emoji Code – imagine receiving an email from a colleague, partner, family member or friend, who you know to be calm and sane; but in their emails to people, this person sounds angry. People often do seem to come across as plain hopping mad.
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The problem with email is that it sucks out the empathy of communication, or the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. You have no way of knowing, when you read an email, if the sender is sipping a martini, in chilled-out-fashion out by the pool in the sunshine, or ranting in a fit of pique in midnight rage.
So emoji puts the empathy back into the text. Basically that’s the function of emoji – to make us better communicators, by filling in something that was missing from digital communication, something that is already there in face to face interaction, provided by our nonverbal cues.
Vyvyan Evans is the author of The Crucible of Language: How Language and Mind Create Meaning.
Absolutely not. Of course, it`s just my opinion, nevertheless, i`m sure that emojis don`t make us dumber. On the contrary, they are much more easier to use in everyday life. Nowadays millions or even billions of people use modern technologies and live in a hurry to make their own career, so time is money. Emojis save our main resource and sometimes can be really pleasant to receive.