Emoji Struggles
Misunderstandings and miscommunications involving emoji occur. Although a Emojipedia is available, there are still underlying meanings and interpretations associated with different emoji depending on gender. The research done by Bai et al. shows that “when men and women use the same emoji, the recipients feel different emotions” (Bai et al., 2019, p.5). Cultural background further plays a role in interpretations of emoji; for example, folded hands could be interpreted as please or thank you, or praying hands, or a high five (Bai et al., 2019, p.6). Furthermore, platform variety plays into miscommunications: “…the bright green, more child-friendly squirt gun from iOS may be a cuter pistol emoji than its counterparts in other platforms, but its particular design may also introduce ambiguities in interpretation, especially when one has to differentiate between an actual firearm and an attractive toy” (Gn, 2018). Finally, meanings of emoji may shift depending on context (Boyle &Carmichael, 2019, p.184) or may not match the real sentiments felt by the sender (Bai et al., 2019, p.11).
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(Bai et al., 2019, p.7)
Representation of ethnicity and gender have been an ongoing issue throughout emoji development. It has been argued that part of this is due to the structure of Unicode; it is “a result of the current model of the Unicode consortium where a specific set of corporate, institutional, and governmental actors decide which emoji will become visible” (Berard, 2018). As discussed previously, decisions regarding the creation of standardized emoji is done by paid members of Unicode which is predominantly made up of North American companies. The initial release of emoji in the “People and Body Parts” category were Caucasian and it was in 2015 that the skin tone modifiers were released due to public dissatisfaction. However, the modifiers were not a solution to the “lack of diverse racial representation in emoji… [but] only introduced further questions about race and representation in emoji design and use” (Sweeney & Whaley, 2019). The Fitzpatrick Scale that is used still over represents lighter skin tones. In addition to this, the “default (white) emoji characters operate as base models that undergrid all the resultant forms of human character representation” (Sweeney & Whaley, 2019).
(Sweeney & Whaley, 2019)
Representation of gender, or lack of, was seen in who was being portrayed doing what. the Always campaign sparked the discussion around gender representation. There was an under-representation of females in professional roles which wasn’t equalized until 2016 when all professions were given an option for person, male, or female.