To ask why we don't use emojis here?

[norfolkbroadd]

You hardly ever see them and yet other such forums are stuffed with them.

I'm not for or against them by the way, I'm just wondering how the natural evolution of the written word has seemingly stalled on MN.

I use them, hadn’t really noticed others didn’t but now I have! 🤦🏼‍♀️😅

Yeah. We used to.

I don't think they're anything to be ashamed of, and I think they can often convey a response more succinctly than a sentence. I'm just a bit fascinated as to why there are so few around these parts.

They're all over the place here.
Worst culprits are those quoting an inordinately long post and just replying 😂 or whatever.

😮🤗

Maybe because we're grown ups and can express ourselves clearly?

I'm not talking about the MN emojis. I'm talking about your everyday emojis such as 😂

It didn't stall. It was a conscious decision as it's a chat forum. Originally there was a 'set' of emojis you were able to use, you couldn't (literally couldn't post external emojis). It was better.

occasionally I forget myself and use emojis from 'outside' but I try not to both out of respect & because it is nicer to just have writing expressing thoughts & not loads of colorful emojis spread about like glitter.

vodkaredbullgirl

😮🤗

Signing out now as there'll be a lot of people thinking they're wonderfully witty with their little cartoons.

Edited to say: I try not to use many of these but, if I do, I usually use the MN emojis because I remember someone saying they couldn't get more sophisticated ones on their phone.
I use the one, but hate it as it looks like a scary skull.

I like to think people are articulate and can express themselves in writing without needing to use pictures.

They annoy me.

Dunno🤷‍♀️

Look, I'm no Barthes but I can string a decent sentence together and even I will use the occasional 🤪

I'm just wondering how the natural evolution of the written word has seemingly stalled on MN.

This is such a wonderful way of putting it, that will infuriate some users.

Emojis are used here, but less than elsewhere. I've tended to assume it's an age thing but who knows.

Bye then

HQ introduced the possibility to use other non MN emojis about 5 years ago I think.

Closing the stable door really as apparently (so my students tell me) they can tell someone's age by whether they use emojis or not as nobody under the age of about 50 would dream of doing something so naff. 😳

We do! 🙄

However, we're grown ups and use an adult vocabulary

I never use emojis.
I wouldn't like to see MN stuffed with them.
But I do enjoy seeing the way some posters use them.
What I don't like is seeing someone making a really appalling revelation about an incident or behaviour and then they put the laughing emoji. As though they don't expect anyone to take their situation seriously and are just totally self depreciating.

Using an emoji does NOT mean that we aren’t grown ups who don’t know how to express ourselves.

I don’t know what the average MNetter has against emojis but I do think some think they’re above others who do use them. Even my 71 year old grandma uses emojis so fuck knows what some people’s problem is. I use emojis in most of my conversations so I use them when I type on MN too😆

Me too, I think they're really useful to convey tone and avoid misunderstandings.

I tend to use the MN emojis on here because I can type the shortcut, and partly out of habit on my phone.

I think they're really interesting as a phenomena and I kind of wish I was back at university in my Linguistics seminars doing a deep dive on them.

I'm 62 and I use emojis, fairly sparingly, but I think sometimes they help with conveying tone, which is not easy to do with the written word alone, i.e. no facial expression, body language, not hearing how loudly or forcefully someone's speaking.

I have a great weakness for the MN which I much prefer to the standard emojis for grinning and laughing. I also like , which stands for hmm. can be useful and I prefer this one to the standard flowers emoji.

🤔don’t know about that 🤷‍♀️

David Crystal has some papers/articles about how emojis are nearer to the written word than we think. It's fascinating.

As an old timer I'll tell you why. You couldn't originally. I think there was a few limited ones, but if you went over onto Netmums 🤔 they would use a whole host of emojis it kind of set the two sites apart.

I mean they even hand banners with signatures on their site. They still exist but don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. There was quite a bit of competition between the two sites in the early days. It's taken me a while to realise there are a lot more emojis on here now 😅 🙃. **

The origins were because they buggered it up for users of assistive technology
(except the MN emoticons in the body of a post) and the "hive mind" went for inclusivity

It's still the case that emojis shouldn't be used in thread titles, as that can bugger up the display on pages which list threads (active, I'm on, front page of topics), or anywhere where they carry the meaning (IYSWIM) as they may not display, this excluding some MNetters.

It's one of the rare occasions where MN came together to make it easier for those with VI disability.

I'd like to see greater use of the MN emoticons - in particular is just better than any other laughing ones