User:Max/rwm/emoji

Introduction

Hi ick ben Max

CMC

Nowadays, web-based communication accounts for a significant proportion of our total communication (at least for most of us). Emails, short messages (SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram…), Social Networks… whenever people use a computer connected to a network in order to exchange messages between each other we refer to it as computer-mediated communication (CMC).

Initially, computer-mediated communication was mostly work-related. Often people would not even have a computer at home, but only at the office, and the communication was limited to sending business emails. Once home computers became more popular, it moved away from the working environment and began revolutionizing the private life of everyone.

Today, we carry a computer in our pocket and use it several times a day to discuss business and send private messages. In 1989, 15% of all American households had a computer, in 2013 this number had increased to nearly 80%. Therefore, computer-mediated communication as such has changed, and with the increase of personal computers it evolved from a work-related medium to a more playful medium (Jibril & Abdullah).

A Pew report published in 2010 revealed that the text message was the most frequently used form of communication among teenagers, including face-to-face communication (NYMAG).

The SIP theory (social information processing), developed in 1992 by Joseph Walter, explains how people interact with each other and establish relationships in a non-verbal and computer-dependent, and thus computer-mediated environment. The theory states that people who communicate with each other via computer (for any reason whatsoever) actively build a social relationship between themselves. Furthermore, the theory implies that it takes more time and effort to establish this social relationship than it would take to establish a similar F2F (face-to-face) relationship. The lack of non-verbal signals in computer-mediated communication significantly limits the scope of the exchange, which is why more messages and thus more time are required. A key aspect of this theory is that users of a medium will adapt to it and find ways to overcome the shortcomings that result from using it. (Walther & D’Addario)

Emoticons

In order to enhance the strictly text-based form of communication by adding a visual expression, the users invented emoticons (Luor, Lu, Wu, and Tao (2010)). These add a visual element to text-based communication.

Sanderson (1993) defines emoticons as a sequence of ordinary characters located on a keyboard. Danesi (2009) specifies:

"Common emoticons include the smiley :-) or :) and the winkey ;-) and the yawn :-O, among others (p. 110)."

It is said that Scott Fahlman (Professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University) composed the first emoticon, a smiling face, on his keyboard in 1982. As he himself writes:

"Yes, I am the inventor of the sideways “smiley face” (sometimes called an “emoticon”) that is commonly used in E-mail, chat, and newsgroup posts. Or at least I’m one of the inventors." (Scott E. Fahlman)

The term emoticon is a portmanteau word (frankenword), which is formed by combining the words emotion and icon. It should be noted that emojis and emoticons are not the same. However, some programs have been increasingly transforming the text input of emoticon character combinations into a corresponding graphic symbol (e.g. Word, ICQ, Skype, later Facebook and Twitter…). Which brings us to

Emojis

😂 "The Oxford Dictionary" chose the emoji "face with tears of joy" as word of the year 2015. But how did this emoji manage to win out over the rule of the word? How did emojis become this yellow soup, that we mix and share with others on a daily basis?

How it all began

Shigetaka Kurita is regarded as the inventor of emojis. Back then he was working for DoCoMo in Japan on the world’s first mobile internet platform called i-mode (the goal was to provide internet services for certain mobile phones, such as weather forecasts, news, reservations…). It was the year 1999 (16 years after the first emoticon appeared). In order to, for instance, declare weather forecasts with a symbol of a sun instead of “fine”, Kurita suggested adding emojis to i-mode.

"I passionately proposed to add emoji to i-mode. My proposal was accepted quite easily since there weren’t many planners back then.”

An additional advantage of emojis was that they could make better use of the display size, which at that time was rather limited.

“At the time, the specs on the devices were really poor, so they weren’t able to display images, for example.” (Kurita).

The first set of emojis consisted of 172 symbols, was monochrome, and the symbols were based on a 12 x 12 pixel grid.

Incidentally, this size of 12 x 12 pixels resulted in the fact that DoCoMo’s emojis were not subject to copyright (“they’re only 12 blocks by 12 blocks,” the company was told). This, in turn, meant that the small images could be copied and lead to other companies picking up on them as well, which only increased their rapid distribution. First within Japan, and a few years later throughout the Western World as well.

Apple

It was 2007, when Apple released the first iPhone. The global smartphone market was booming and Apple seemed to understand: in order to crack the Japanese market, you needed emojis. Willem van Lancker designed several 100 emoji characters for the Japanese iPhone (iPhone 3GS, 2009). With the firmware 2.2 Japanese users finally gained access to the first Apple emoji keyboard. Technically savvy users in the Western world also found a way to display the usually hidden emoji keyboard, by downloading a Japanese app.

As of iOS 5 in 2011, the Apple emoji keyboard was finally available for every iOS user. Hallelujah.