Celebrating the return of the hieroglyphs

July 17 is the date on the Calendar emoji and hence has been elevated to World Emoji Day, to celebrate these hieroglyphs of the digital age.

If, like me, you are not active on social media, perhaps you are unaware just how omnipresent these teeny-weeny images now are. And you might ask whether they are essential, or superfluous. Do they enrich our ability to communicate, do they provide a better way of connecting with each other? Are they merely a fashion trend for people who are always short of time, or are they threatening to replace our character- and word-based writing system? Are they proof that words are not suitable (any longer) for expressing feelings – or simply a demonstration that we have lost the ability of earlier generations to use words for that purpose?

Does my refusal to use emojis make me unemotional, conventional or bossy? Or is it simply proof that I am hopelessly behind the times, grumpy and devoid of a sense of humour? Do my friends and colleagues feel insulted or outraged that their emojis don’t prompt me into sending them one in response?

I do think the emergence and success of this pictorial language system is kind of weird if you consider the evolution of writing. From ancient Egypt via Mesopotamia, civilization progressed from hieroglyphs to phonetic writing, as this provided a less cumbersome way of “spelling things out”. You no longer had to painstakingly draw five sheep or dignitaries approaching a pharao sitting on a throne. Is it not counter-intuitive therefore that after thousands of years of evolution and progress we are reverting back to hieroglyphs? Back from abstraction to images?

Emojis have been around for quite a while. I recall reading that Italian researchers came across a clay pot on the Turkish-Syrian border that showed two eyes over a curved mouth – the earliest known smiley, dating from ancient times. The first emoji of modern times, the yellow smiley, was designed in 1963 by Harvey Ball, a commercial designer. But the real breakthrough came with the Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita who in 1999 was asked by a mobile phone provider to create pictograms for various daily objects and activities (the constraints were: 12 x 12 pixels). Today, his 176 images (originally inspired by Manga art) are on show at the New York Museum of Modern Art, and Kurita is credited with “planting the seeds for a new pictorial language”. In 2015, the Oxford Dictionary chose the smiling emoji with blue tears of joy (????) as their “Word of the Year”. Today, I am told, the total number of emojis is over 3000 – and growing all the time. Many people have acquired an astounding fluency in this pictorial language, which clearly is easier to learn than, say, Japanese.

There are stories and books written with emojis. It’s no longer just smiling, sad, angry or grumpy faces and thumbs up and down. On offer are health workers (male and female) and other professions, frisbee, table tennis, birthday cakes, a croissant, a palm tree, all sorts of animals, and fireworks, of course.

Chevrolet and Pepsi were among the first companies to exploit emojis for their own purposes, in a clever attempt to overcome language barriers from their global messaging. And ever since, these images keep turning up in various places, on phone message, e-mails etc., but particularly on social media.

Perhaps Covid was another accelerator in the use of emojis? As people were unable to communicate with each other in person and were forced to use messaging services, Skype etc., written communication took on a new importance. But the art of letter-writing had long been a thing of the past. So emojis came in handy. They provided a bit of light-heartedness, and good humour; they helped to add a touch of lightness and cheer to the greyness of everyday life. Adding a friendly smiley is a quick and easy way to convey sympathy and good will, or to make a not-so-welcome message more palatable. And of course, circumstances demanded new emojis: Apple came up with a ‘face with medical mask and a smile underneath’.

Emojis are also used to express people’s attitudes and convictions with regard to society and politics. Think of the Black Lives Matter emojis (brown and black circles, raised fists, etc.) or the Flag of Ukraine emoji to express solidarity with the Ukrainian people, sometimes in conjunction with the Sunflower emoji, as a symbol of resistance and solidarity.

The real benefit and appeal of these symbols is of course the fact that they overcome language barriers. They are (almost) universal and speak “without words”. Though a few dangers lurk, too, particularly with symbols involving gestures with hands and fingers that might have particular meanings in certain languages. “Thumbs up” for example, which is seen to mean approval, Like, etc. in most cultures, can be seen as insulting in Iran or Thailand, apparently.  Same is true of the “OK” emoji where thumb and index finger form an “O”. Brazilians and Turks might be offended by one of those.

8 percent of humanity, I read, never use emojis at all. Women it seems are the more frequent users. A study carried out in 2015 revealed that they believe that emojis can better express how sad, confused, surprised, shocked, embarrassed, annoyed or rolling-on-the-floor-laughing they feel than words.

When recruiting copywriters, should we test their fluency in emojis? Under “languages” or “Additional skills” on a CV should candidates start adding their competency level in emojis, too?

And how about this: Scientific studies found that when we look at a smiley face on our screens our brain responds as if we were looking at a real human face… with the same areas in our brain firing up. The digital faces we see can change our mood, in the same way as in a real-life encounter or when looking at a picture of a kitten!

Needless to say, marketing gurus have cottoned on to this too. They are using emojis for capturing people’s attention, enhancing consumers’ experience and enticing them to buy. It makes companies look more approachable, provides a more immediate connection. They have a more benevolent effect than the exaggerated language, heavy with jargon and repetitive adjectives that we’re all so sick and tired of. They also evoke the idea that a company or a person does not take themselves too seriously and is into youth culture, into equality and inclusion.

Emojis are clear, and fit for purpose. They are unconstrained by grammar and do away with verbosity. In that sense they are easy to use for authors and accessible for consumers. Instead of weighing down a message, they lighten it up.

Hieroglyphs as a writing system have a long history. Whether they also have a future remains to be seen.