{"id":406835,"date":"2022-02-17T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/"},"modified":"2022-02-17T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T12:00:06","slug":"do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"#Do We Really Need an Emoji for Every Object on Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ebe390c973\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ebe390c973\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/#Emoji_Were_Once_Limited_For_a_Reason\" >Emoji Were Once Limited For a Reason<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/#Emoji_Ambiguity_is_Now_a_Problem\" >Emoji Ambiguity is Now a Problem<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/#Emoji_Are_Hard_to_Find\" >Emoji Are Hard to Find<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/do-we-really-need-an-emoji-for-every-object-on-earth\/#Improving_Representation_Is_Still_Good\" >Improving Representation Is Still Good<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#Do We Really Need an Emoji for Every Object on Earth?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage wp-image-784925 size-full\" data-pagespeed-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/no_emoji_2.jpg?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/no_emoji_2.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/no_emoji_2.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"A crossed-out emoji face\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" data-credittext=\"Apple\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Your smartphone is full of cute little pictures of faces, people, and objects. They can be fun\u2014and legitimately useful\u2014but there are currently <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/stats\/\">over 3,600<\/a> of them. With more continuously added over time, we\u2019re changing the nature of emoji itself. When will it end?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Emoji_Were_Once_Limited_For_a_Reason\"><\/span>Emoji Were Once Limited For a Reason<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Originally, emoji were <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/stories.moma.org\/the-original-emoji-set-has-been-added-to-the-museum-of-modern-arts-collection-c6060e141f61?gif=true\">limited<\/a> in detail and in number, allowing them to serve as pictograms that could depict a broad group of objects or ideas. Sure, the influential <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/docomo\/\">176-entry set of emoji<\/a> created by NTT DOCOMO in Japan for cell phones was constrained by technical limitations such as image resolution and storage space. But that limitation gave birth to their genius: By distilling visual expression down to 176 symbols, they were flexible enough to apply to many different situations and even adapt to local cultures in different ways.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-785274\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/1999_nttdocomo_emoji.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"The original 176 item set of emoji from NTT DOCOMO in 1999.\" width=\"650\" height=\"264\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\">NTT DOCOMO<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Today, in 2022, we have over 3,600 emoji for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unicode.org\/emoji\/charts\/full-emoji-list.html\">very specific things<\/a> in an international Unicode standard, including wine \ud83c\udf77, cat faces with tears of joy \ud83d\ude39, elves \ud83e\udddd, genies\ud83e\uddde, zombies \ud83e\udddf\u200d\u2642\ufe0f, beetles \ud83d\udc1e, french fries \ud83c\udf5f, bricks \ud83e\uddf1, and even amphora \ud83c\udffa. The more specific and detailed emoji get, the more people realize that things are being left out, and some groups <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90136118\/how-the-dumpling-democratized-emoji\">regularly petition<\/a> to add new emoji to the set. Today, anyone can propose a new emoji, and if it meets <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unicode.org\/emoji\/proposals.html#selection_factors\">certain criteria<\/a>, it will be added to the standard.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Emoji_Ambiguity_is_Now_a_Problem\"><\/span>Emoji Ambiguity is Now a Problem<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>With 3,633 emoji, ambiguity now becomes a curse \ud83d\ude48. There are many emoji of a confusing or ambiguous nature whose meaning you might not understand, and even if you do, the person you\u2019re sending the emoji to might not. It\u2019s easier to create a set of meta rules about the cultural uses of a smaller set of emoji, such as an emoji sticking its tongue out (officially titled \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/face-savoring-food\/\">face savoring delicious food<\/a>\u201c) \ud83d\ude0b meaning \u201csilly\u201d or \u201cjoking.\u201d But if someone sends you an emoji of the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/tokyo-tower\/\">Tokyo Tower<\/a> \ud83d\uddfcin the middle of a conversation, what does it mean?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-785273\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/new_emoji_v14.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Emoji additions to v14 in 2022.\" width=\"650\" height=\"212\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>As emoji grow more numerous, their ability to be used in a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> sense suffers.\u00a0In a 2019 article in The Atlantic, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2019\/02\/how-new-emoji-are-changing-pictorial-language\/582400\/\">Ian Bogost wrote<\/a>, \u201cEmoji are becoming more specific and less flexible as more icons appear.\u201d By adding more specific emoji, the existing emoji lose expressive power.<\/p>\n<p>This is funny because the success of our written grammar comes from having a limited number of words that can express an unlimited number of ideas. In <em>Introduction to Information Theory<\/em> (1960), John R. Pierce wrote, \u201cWe cannot have a separate word for every distinct object and every distinct event; if we did we should forever be coining words, and communication would be impossible.\u201d He goes on to describe how the word \u201crun\u201d \ud83c\udfc3\u200d\u2642\ufe0f can apply to many different situations.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, many emoji are currently used in this flexible way, with some emoji like \u201cpeach\u201d \ud83c\udf51 having a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/peach\/\">widely accepted<\/a>, non-literal meaning. But what would happen to the meaning of the peach emoji if Unicode eventually added an emoji that literally represented that certain body part? The more specific the emoji get, the less powerful they become.<\/p>\n<p>With the proliferation of emoji, we\u2019re witnessing the history of written language in reverse, where flexible grammar with a few elements (a 26-letter alphabet) is expanding back into a pictographic library full of literal representations of objects. The exact opposite happened in Sumeria about 5000 years ago, when <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cuneiform#Pictograms\">pictograms<\/a> representing literal objects \ud83d\udc02 evolved into <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Logogram\">logographic<\/a> writing systems \u2649, which later became syllabic and alphabetic scripts \ud83d\udd20 for more flexibility.<\/p>\n<p>Another problem with modern emoji is that their appearance can differ between platforms. That can result in people <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inverse.com\/article\/14097-emoji-differences-by-platform\">interpreting them differently<\/a> on each platform, adding further ambiguity to a conversation.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Emoji_Are_Hard_to_Find\"><\/span>Emoji Are Hard to Find<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>With over 3,600 emoji, how do you find the one you need to use? You could spend probably 30 minutes browsing for just the right emoji, only to have its meaning mistaken by someone else. Or you could use a search function commonly build into operating systems such as iOS or Windows. Even then, sometimes you don\u2019t know what to search for.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, if someone sends you an emoji, you might not know what it is or what it\u2019s supposed to mean \ud83d\ude35, luckily, sites like Emojipedia can come in handy, but if you need a guide to understand emoji, doesn\u2019t that defeat the purpose entirely?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Improving_Representation_Is_Still_Good\"><\/span>Improving Representation Is Still Good<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Make no mistake, since the Unicode Consortium has embraced adding many specific emoji to the standard, additions to the emoji list that improve gender, cultural, and skin color representation are great additions. An appearance of a treasured cultural item \ud83e\udd5f in the emoji standard is a powerful form of recognition that exists across smartphone keyboards worldwide. It can inspire <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/e\/emoji\/chinese-new-year-emoji\/\">cultural pride<\/a> similar to seeing your country\u2019s team making an appearance on the world stage at the Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>But emoji aren\u2019t entirely about broadening <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> inclusion. Last year, the Unicode Consortium announced 37 new emoji that include a troll, a piece of coral, and a disco ball. The standard has been <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/chart\/17275\/number-of-emojis-from-1995-bis-2019\/\">growing<\/a> dramatically in size over the past two decades\u2014from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Apple_Color_Emoji\">471 emoji<\/a> in Apple\u2019s initial emoji set in 2008 to the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/emojipedia.org\/faq\/\">3,633<\/a> we have today.<\/p>\n<p>The question then remains: How many emoji is enough? Will there eventually be 10,000 emoji? 20,000? Do we need an emoji for every object on earth \ud83c\udf0e, every species of animal \ud83d\udc2c, every type of food \ud83c\udf47, every expression across every culture? Writing for Slate in 2018, Heather Schwedel <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2018\/08\/we-dont-need-a-white-wine-emoji.html\">said<\/a>, \u201cWe don\u2019t need an emoji to represent every single word. That\u2019s why we have words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But then again, maybe words are old <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>, and we\u2019re witnessing the birth of a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2016\/04\/the-science-of-emoji\/\">brand new visual language<\/a>? \ud83e\udd37 No matter what happens, emoji are popular now and undoubtedly here to stay. What happens with emoji over the next few decades, and how our use of them evolves over time, will be very interesting to watch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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They can be fun\u2014and legitimately useful\u2014but there are currently over 3,600 of them. With more continuously added over time, we\u2019re changing the nature of emoji itself. When will it end?&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/no_emoji_2.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}