Julia – https://blogs.ubc.ca/macisaacj10/2025/10/06/task-6-an-emoji-story/

Julia creates a linear emoji story that follows a typical morning before running into a series of small setbacks. Her reflection focuses on the challenge of choosing emojis that capture specific actions, feelings, and transitions. She points out that emojis often flatten nuance, which forces the reader to interpret what is happening rather than follow a clearly defined narrative. There’s also a view on how relying on visual symbols alone creates a playful kind of ambiguity, but at the same time removes the clarity we normally expect in storytelling.

In my own emoji story, I reflect on how limiting it felt to express an idea without written language. I found it difficult to shape a sequence that carried the tone, detail, or structure I intended. My reflection centres on how symbols fail to represent complexity, especially when the viewer cannot rely on text to connect the pieces. I highlight how much meaning is lost once words are removed and how the story becomes open to interpretations I never planned.

Linking the Two
Both of our reflections explore the limits of representation when storytelling relies only on emojis. Julia emphasizes how readers must fill in missing details, while I focus more on how the loss of text affects the structure and meaning of the narrative. Her post highlights the creative potential of ambiguity, while mine leans toward the challenges that ambiguity creates. Together, our experiences show how emoji stories make us confront what is usually invisible in communication: the scaffolding that words provide and the gaps we rarely notice until language is stripped away.