Linking Assignment #3: Emoji Stories – Trista Svennes
The Emoji Stories assignment was one of my favourite tasks this term, and both Trista and I were very excited to guess each other’s Emoji stories. When viewing Trista’s emoji, I quickly identified her story summarizing the TV show the Amazing Race. The following sentence in her story shared that 10 teams were racing around the world to win a cash prize. Because I’ve watched the Amazing Race and understand the premise of the TV show, I could easily guess the rest of her emoji story. However, I wondered if you hadn’t seen the TV show before – how easily would you be able to guess it?
Trista shared in her post that she uses emojis daily, and I thought it was an accurate statement she explained, stating ‘it’s quite interesting that we use these symbols so freely to replace text in order to communicate and get the point across without being face to face with someone” (Bolter, 2001 p. 56). Reflecting on how emojis can replace text can provide opportunities for more detailed understanding and for emotions to be expressed in text conversations, where often you can portray your feelings appropriately via text.
I thought Trista also made a great connection by comparing this activity to Ellen DeGeneres’ Game of Game’s called ‘See Ya Later Alligator’, where players face off in a challenge to be the first to read an emoji sentence. I watched the clip she shared and thought these activities would be fantastic ways to encourage students who may be opposed to writing to engage in a fun way to tell their story.