Get Your Emoji Wisdom Right Here

Womanzine‘s Emoji issue (!!!) is chock-full of emotive goodness — emoji haiku, emojis we all wish existed (example: “Did I leave my scarf at your house?”), slut-shaming emoji, The Shining summarized in emoji — it’s dreamy.

But there’s also some really thought-provoking stuff in there about how those little martini glasses and shrimps have changed the way we communicate:

Emoji allow me an ironic space within the dreaded cheery sincerity of being engaged. I can emoji diamond rings; therefore, it is ok that yes, I have a diamond ring. I default to emoji, a safe argot, as a means of discussing a marriage I’m emotionally ready for, but still lack the language to describe.

Through repeated use with friends and loved ones, emoji take on a significance particular to the history of the two conversing. But they never lose their own easy, basic meanings.

Emoji are the Zooey Deschanel of communication devices: sweet, but not without an edge.

“Emoji make it easier to talk about anything, I think!” [Emily] Gould wrote me. “They’re part of the sort of arms race of communication styling that led me to feel that sometimes only one exclamation point seems unenthusiastic or even downright sarcastic.”

I am fascinated too by the idea that I’m using shorthand that might seem incomprehensible to future generations. Or, even better, will exist but with an entirely different set of connotations or social acceptability. But then again, I expect that the way I go about marriage will some day seem just as dated.

Expand your mind and emoji creativity (my friends are about to get some really excellent texts after I’m off work today) by checking it out.

[Womanzine]