Task 6: An Emoji Story

What’s interesting about emojis, is that they can provide a recreation of emotion through symbols (a capturing of semantic value). For instance, if you add a smiling emoji to a text, you’re adding a facial expression that would otherwise not be captured or perhaps a hidden emotion that is not readily exemplified through language. Beyond that, emojis have developed into a language of their own, “emojis don’t replace words; no one says ‘sunglasses fire 100’ out loud. Instead they indicate gestures (thumbs up, facepalm) or context (laughing, crying, crying laughing) or mood” (Shirky, 2019). Dr. Gretchen McCulloh, a linguist who studies how the internet has shaped language, points out that each emoji is an emblem and “the key feature of emblems is that they’re nameable gestures” (2019, p.154). Therefore, the idea behind the emoji is that we could embed gestures into our written language. In the image below, I try to recreate a story using sequences of emojis – any guess as to what story I’m trying to recreate? *Hint it’s on Netflix*

Recreating a Story through Emojis 

Reflection

I relied on the imagery displayed within the story. Partly, because the images are integral to the actual story itself, and they are very easily connected to the theme and narrative. I leaned into the idea of “competition” and “money” in hopes that that would steer the reader into thinking about a particular genre. I found it challenging to incorporate more elaborate ideas, mostly because the text itself is very one-dimensional, and lacks change or development that would signify a unique plot. Therefore, I felt limited by the repetitive nature of the story itself and found that there was not enough diversity in emojis for me to adequately address the subtle changes to the plot. I started with the title because I think that incorporating the “camera” and “tv” emoji at the top would help guide the reader to the type of medium I had chosen. My chosen story is only in one medium and not across several, so these emojis immensely limit the scope of my selected narrative. I did not choose the work based on how easy it would be to visualize – though retrospectively maybe I should have. I selected the work because it’s what I have been binging off Netflix over the past few weeks.

References

McCulloch, G. (2019). Emoji and Other Internet Gestures. In Because internet: Understanding the new rules of language. essay, Riverhead Books.

Shirky, C. (2019, August 16). Emojis are language too: A linguist says internet-speak isn’t such a bad thing. The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/books/review/because-internet-gretchen-mcculloch.html