One Big Thing: 🤔 About Emoji
It was World Emoji Day this week, one of hundreds of hashtag days that have overrun our social media feeds (am all for #WorldChocolateDay, but I don’t celebrate #NationalPostalWorkerDay or #TalkInAnElevatorDay - all are in July 😕).
Emoji have (the AP Stylebook taught us recently that even the plural is singular) also overrun our feeds, texts, and WhatsApp messages. Even as hundreds of millions love and use them every day, there are others, like a friend of mine, who hate them (he refuses to acknowledge any message in which I use one). I’m a fan, and even used a bunch in the first interview I ever did via WhatsApp, with Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv).
I want to share some thoughts on the evolution of emoji - we used to know them as emoticons - and the ethics of their use. I first talked about this when giving the 65th Media in Ethics Keynote at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia in March (relevant section starts at 44:56; see the slides here) - big thank you to Aly Colon (@alyco), Knight Chair of Media Ethics.
I made my first emoticon in 1990 when The Economist wrote about putting a : a - and ) and turning your head sideways. I remember that moment at the Sunday Observer newspaper I worked at in New Delhi in the early days of electronic typesetting in India. I used to use :-) :-( ;-) etc in email and was very excited when the first emoji appeared in phones. If you need to type one on your laptop, no problem, there’s GetEmoji.com, which allows you to cut/paste any you need. And there’s Emojipedia if, like me, you need to understand the meanings of some of the more obscure ones.
For people of color, Apple and others' moving to skin-tone emoji was a game-changer and allowed us to own our emoji in a new way. 🙏🏾
Things changed again with the arrival of Bitmoji, the app that allows you to make your own personalized emoji. Read all about it and even fancier ones from Apple and Samsung in this article from the Guardian (it was the most downloaded iOS app of 2017).
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The use of emoji, along with GIFs of all kinds, has made social media more playful and accessible. But there’s also a problem that’s been identified by various writers: the rise of “digital blackface” - white folks using GIFs of black folks. As you can see in this collection of articles on KnowYourMeme, and this video by Amanda Hess, black people are disproportionately represented in reaction GIFs used by white people. My own personal stance is that I don’t use reaction GIFs of black people in my posts and I implore everyone to think about how we use GIFs and emoji that aren’t of our own race or color.
A final thought. The AP Stylebook reminds us: Be aware that some GIFs, emoji or other images may contain hidden meanings and nuances requiring consideration and more than just a simple description of the image posted.
So be careful using that eggplant or peach emoji!
- Sree (prepping for my Boston social media workshop this Tuesday, from 6-9 pm, in Cambridge: http://bit.ly/sreecambridge. To learn about sponsoring my tour, 25+ cities in 10+ countries: http://bit.ly/sreesponsordoc.
One small thing: If you'd like to discuss sponsoring the Sunday Note, have a job you'd like to get out there, or an announcement you want people to see, just reply to this email or write to sree@sree.net and let's talk. Of course, there's a discount for being an early supporter. We also have a Sunday Note Patreon!
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😱 It hasn't been a great past few weeks for Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on the Internet. His journalism rants were misinformed at best, and his comments about a cave diver involved in the rescue of the soccer team in Thailand were worse. Abhimanyu Ghoshal (@aghoshal) thinks it's time for Musk to delete his Twitter account. Read it @ The Next Web
🇺🇸 Fundamental rights - get 'em while they last! Van Badham (@vanbadham) thinks we should get out there and celebrate things like a free press and an independent judicial system, because they may not be around too much longer. Read it @ The Guardian
🏳️🌈 Inclusivity inherently means the erosion of power or influence from one party to another (or several more). As Dinesh C. Paliwal, CEO of Harman (and the boss of my wife, Roopa Unnikrishnan), writes here, embracing inclusivity in the workplace, and in broader society, means some people are going to be uncomfortable. We need to all be ok with that. Read it @ HuffPost
💻 If you're reading this newsletter, you're probably at least somewhat read in on state- and non-state sponsored hacking - it's not like it hasn't been in the news. How is the US doing in this arena? Not great, writes Josh Lospinoso (@jalospinoso), mainly because the Pentagon is too rigid bureaucratically. Read it @ War on the Rocks
🚮 Fake news isn't some esoteric lingua franca from the Twitter troll community - it's a useful tactic in the era of digital campaigning. Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) takes a look at who's doing it and how. This is one of those times where, yes, both sides are actually doing it. Read it @ Axios
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Data Points 🗽
A lot of countries are doing a lot wrong with immigration, and the trends are downright scary. At the same time, cities are actually doing well by their immigrant populations. Sociologist Ernesto Castañeda went out and polled immigrants in New York City, Barcelona, and Paris, to find out what cities get right. Read the full piece here.
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Threads ✅
"This generation" this, and "this generation" that. As I've written here before, I'm not a fan of generationalism. I have worked with millenials for a long time, and the vast majority of them have been incredible. I love this thread from Jenny Bann (@calluna_) that takes a piece on so-called "unteachable" kids, and turns it on its head with student discipline reports from the 18th century. Things were slightly different back in the day. Read it here.
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Listen to Something 🎧
If only political journalists interviewed their subjects like Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) interviews hers. By now, you've likely heard at least some highlights (or lowlights, as it were) from her latest sit-down with Mark Zuckerberg, but I encourage to listen to the full conversation. He missed badly on the Holocaust deniers, but was quite thoughtful on several other important topics. Listen to the episode here.
For good podcast ideas, follow my SreeTips FB page. Every Sunday, we do "Sunday Sounds" where we showcase a selection of can't-miss episodes. If you have or know of a podcast you want us to feature, drop us a note: sree@sree.net.
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Watch Something 📺
Congrats to France on their World Cup win! This was an amazing tournament, and the French side almost has to be considered an odds-on favorite to repeat. On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah),took a minute to congratulate Africa for the win, as the French team was comprised of several first- and second-generation immigrants. The quip prompted a letter to Noah from the French Ambassador to the US, which took Noah to task for the joke. Here's the host at his absolute best in response.
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Coming Up
FB LIVE! Every Sunday I host the Sunday New York Times Readalong on Facebook Live. When I'm traveling, I ask Neil Parekh (@neilparekh), co-producer of the #NYTReadalong, to serve as guest host.
Click here just after 8:30 am ET on Sunday to join (you can catch the recording at that link soon after).
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Our Best Today, Our Better Tomorrow
Digimentors is live - it's my new membership program. Join now!
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