Hello, my name is Rebecca, and I’m an emotional emoji user

Warning! ⚠️ This article contains an excessive number of emojis.

As many of you may have caught on by now, I tend to use a lot of emojis. Yeah, I'm definitely probably known by now as "that emoji chick” who people definitely probably think, “Why is she sending me a riddle with all these symbols? Doesn't she know I have a fucking job?" 🤨

If you didn't know this about me, proceed with caution. ‼️

Another head’s up: It’s almost that time of year! I'm talking about sending our kids off to overnight camp July 17, which is World Emoji Day. So exciting, and we’ll get to why in a sec. I mean, you could be the next “thinking face” — one of my favs — founder! 😲

The “face with tears of joy” emoji — which you might know as the “crying laughing” face (😂) — is officially the most used emoji in Canada, according to this 2022 study. 

At one point, I only used them sparingly in my digital communications — usually in the subject line, one of my tips for grabbing an editor’s attention. 🎉 (Scroll back later for more tips on how I, personally, get editors to open pitches here!) 

But I soon found myself sending out texts and emails with multiple emojis. Now I can't live without them 🙈 mostly for fear that if I don’t add a “winking face with tongue" emoji, people will not realize I’m just being silly and my suggestion to hire a stripper at an upcoming 95th birthday celebration is for real.

"That's funny,” wrote back one of the organizers. See? Would she have thought it was NOT funny if I hadn't added that “winking face with tongue”? (😜)

If you’ve read my newsletter, texts, and Facebook or Insta posts, you’d think that by the number of emojis I include, sometimes in a row, that all of those little faces and objects decided social distancing was way overrated. 🏝️🍹🏖️

That’s how many emojis I use. 😬

Hello! My name is Rebecca, and I'm an emotional eater emoji user.

Hear me out: Those little symbols capture so much significance in an adorable way — that is, if you’re using the correct one and the person receiving the communication can read the underlying message behind the upside-down face emoji. 🙃

(Parents of teens? No, your little angel isn't craving an eggplant. And there is an ongoing debate about whether the poo emoji was really meant to be ice cream, which is disappointing because, if that’s the case, I have invited a lot of people out for gelato when I really meant to call them pieces of shit. 🤷)

I don’t always overuse emojis. But when I do, I overuse the fuck out of them. 😇 The emojis we use collectively act as a window to the soul. The use of emojis, once a unique way to express emotions and attitudes, is now the norm and, I'd argue, a language of its own. (I heard once that thumbs-up really means “fuck you.” 👍 “If you ever receive the thumbs-up emoji, be insulted immediately,” said one Ticktock user. There are, apparently, hundreds of ways to use emojis and just as many unspoken rules about how not to use them!)

In fact, I have entire conversations with my kids (and My Guy) about how to use emojis. 🤪

“I love you” might sound boring in a text, but add an insane amount of heart-shaped emojis in numerous colours, and it automatically and instantaneously shows my children that I love them beyond, well, “love.”  💖💘💗

We can all agree that adding a wall of hearts adds an extra emotional touch. Yes, it may be extra, but I'm extra. So…shrug? 😐

The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than it processes text, so using an emoji (or multiple emojis) in your message can help the reader better understand what you’re trying to say and, more importantly, avoid any confusion (like hiring a stripper at a 95th birthday party). 😄

In our digital world, emojis have become another language — which brings the total languages I can understand now to four — yet I think I can still speak Spanish better than emoji. 🤭

A recent study revealed that 83% of people think that emojis help express themselves. 😍 (FYI, emojis were born in a Japanese research facility in 1999, and cell phone users in Japan became the first to share their hearts out with winks, blown kisses, and tears of joy. Thanks!)

Last week, for example, I texted my makeup artist to see if she was available. I spent more time trying to decode her text than I have ever spent looking over my kids’ report cards — report cards, mind you, that would be more efficient for teachers to write and easier for parents to absorb if performance was indicated by a happy face, a disappointed face, or a meh-face. It would be so easy to say to my 10-year-old, who thinks school is torture, “You better smarten up, dude. You got an angry face in English. But good job in math. You got a smiley face!” 😁

When I texted my makeup artist, “Gah! I forgot you were out of town. No worries, enjoy!” her response was three emojis: a lipstick (understood!), an upside-down smiley-face (didn't understand), followed by a face that looked disappointed (understood, but not the context it was used for). 😕

After about 36 minutes of debating whether I should respond to her text with the “laughing so hard I’m crying” face — another fav — I decided to not respond. I had not a clue what she meant. Was her lipstick hurt? 💄

Fear not if you don’t speak emoji — there's an emoji dictionary! Described as the first crowdsourced emoji resource, and similar to Wikipedia, “we rely on the community to share, build and define the Emoji that have so long remained shrouded in mystery.” 📖

These people have cool titles! Emoji Lexicographer, responsible for researching emoji meanings and writing the Emojipedia definitions. (Turns out the upside-down face can be used to convey irony, sarcasm, joking, or bemusement — which is the way I use it. But following a lipstick with a disappointed face? Fuck me. I don't have time for riddles!) 😤

Communicating emotions using non-verbal means is not new. As the nursery rhyme goes, if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. 👏

Instead of saying "Call you later," you can raise a hand to your ear mimicking the movement of a phone call. 📞

But let’s get back to the nature of emojis: a smiley emoji resembles a facial expression as a natural sign of the communicator’s emotional state. A face-palming emoji resembles an expression of a person who is dismayed. Or I use it when I make a mistake, which points to my emotional state of embarrassment. Emojis can and do convey emotions. ❕

In fact, if you want to know the story of my life, I no longer have to write a memoir. 📘

Not only have emojis become critical in the way we communicate, but your go-to emojis can also reveal a lot about who you are as a person. 🧑

I, apparently, am a person who uses emojis for numerous reasons. And I’ll admit, not always in the appropriate way…kind of like reading sketches in cave runes. But mostly, I love using emojis so people know when I’m happy, sad, freaking out, excited, proud, celebrating, or so people know I’m eating pizza 🍕 or sushi or something in a bowl with a spoon, or French fries 🍟 or any other of the 82 officially approved food and drink-related emojis out of almost 3,600 emojis (!) literally available at our texting fingertips. 

In 2021, according to emojipedia.org, 112 new emojis were added. Additions include mixed skin tone support for the handshake 🤝🏽 — because you know, we were all shaking hands in 2021 — “biting lips,” featuring a mouth with the top teeth biting down on one side of the lower lip, used in a romantic or flirty way (or to express excitement or pain. Let's see how many people misuse this one!), and a “battery” emoji showing a minimal amount of power remaining. This one I get! It’s used to communicate you’re freaking the fuck out on low power mode and your phone needs to be recharged immediately.

From falafels to alien monsters, you can find a visual representation for almost anything you could ever imagine. 👾

Have you ever read Les Miserables, the French historical novel by Victor Hugo published in 1862, affectionally known as Les Miz for those of us who have watched the musical or stage adaptations? If you’re proficient in emoji-speak, look below. Not one word is used to sum up a novel that is considered one of the greatest of the 19th century. 🇫🇷

In just 86 icons, someone with way too much time managed to sum up the 1,500-paged English editions (or 1,900-paged French version), which consists of five volumes, divided into several books and subdivided into chapters, totalling 48 books and 365 chapters.) 

When emojis were first released in 2010, the range of icons was much more limited. Not only that but there were also quite a few odd images that lead me to scratch my head wondering if they are on mushrooms at the creators of these emojis — like the ogre emoji. 👹

For example, I’m not actually sure what kind of goblin this emoji is trying to capture. It looks like a bright red version of those theatre masks, complete with a long pointy nose and a severe moustache. Just looking at it creeps me out. 😨

Or the fact there is a pager emoji. 📟 Who uses pagers anymore? And yet the emoji makers still went through the trouble of creating an entire image for something people have forgotten about, or if you were born anytime after 1991, you wouldn't even recognize. Bravo for effort! But I promise, no one's using the pager emoji. 

Why write an entire novel, let’s say about a woman who doesn't want kids, when I can sum it up like this:

Anyway, the countdown is on for World Emoji Day! (July 17th) 😊

Have an idea? 💡

A non-profit called Unicode Consortium manages emojis, decides which new ones will be released, and launches new emojis every year created by people like you and me. You don't need to be a professional designer to submit an emoji proposal. If you feel there is something that can be represented as an emoji, you can fill out a form on their website and submit your emoji proposal. 📝

Emojis go through a rigorous selection process before making their way into our phones. The process is so long that it takes one entire year for the Unicode Consortium to finally decide what emojis will be released. 

It generally releases 50 to 70 unique emoji characters per year, and every new emoji that gets added is there permanently. So start pondering…as I am. 😏

Also, I think it may be possible for me to know how much sex you're having based on the lack of emojis you’re using, at least according to this newsworthy article (🙄) People Who Use More Emojis Have More Sex and Get More Dates.

They suggest that emoji users are more emotive in general. Emoji use may signify that one is more emotionally expressive, engages in more self-disclosure, and just has an easier time building intimacy  — factors that form the basis for a more active dating and sex life.

This suggests that people who are resistant to using emojis, for whatever reason, might not be getting any. 🍆 Either that or I should consider myself lucky to be an emotional emoji user. 😉