For 24-year-old Debjit Kar, texting is no more fun and exciting. Instead emojis/emoticons have taken its place and are way more interesting. He says, “you can express yourself though them (emojis & emoticons).
“They are fun. They are short and crisp. You just type once,” Debjit said adding, “Who will type ‘I am fine.’ I would rather type :-).”
No one can ignore the fact that emojis and emoticons have replaced long texts and people are way more comfortable using them and bring this revolution is none other than WhatsApp.
A year ago, texting was the only source to express your views and emotions. Though emojis were there, but people resorted to texting as they were still unaware.
WhatsApp, which is dubbed as the world’s number one chat app, has revolutionised the way people communicate these days. WhatsApp provides a large set of emoticons to convey feelings and several other thoughts which would otherwise need several words to express.
“An Emoticon is worth a thousand words,” says Priyanka Sharma. “Why to write plenty when just a smiley can do great.”
“Emoticons have made conveying emotions easier. You can convey a variety of emotions through emoticons easily. But they have reduced our ability to use words to communicate competently,” Shreeja Sen, who hails from Kolkata, said.
“Since expressing ourselves through emoticons has become so easy, people are forgetting how to express themselves through words,” she added.
“Texting is definitely good. But emoticons have helped a lot in expressing our feelings. Words definitely cannot express our feelings in a proper manner, but emoticons help a lot in expressing in a manner we want to say that sentence,” Ankita Paul said adding, “Definitely, emoticons are taking over but it’s no harm as it is helping us to express ourselves in a much better way.”
However, Kolkata’s Tathagata Dasgupta feels the other way. “Emoticons can’t ever replace the richness of the written word. You can express how you’re feeling, but you can’t express HOW you’re feeling. You know what I mean.”
“Emoticons express a range. Words express a feeling. Being happy might have many reasons. But if I say ‘Today I’m happy because I had Biryani’, you know how to respond. Emojis aren’t clear communication,” he added.
Satabdi Pal, who resides in the UK, feels the same. “Emoticons are lot easier but less expressive. Emoticons are good for reaction but texting helps you build a case as in your current situation what you want to say how you are feeling what you want to do.”
“I would rather say emoticons are good along with text,” she added.
Some even feel texting is better as your fingers get a workout session even though you are sitting on the couch. It helps you in relaxing your muscles.
“I prefer texting as I feel it’s a good workout for my fingers,” 61-year-old Kuldip Kaur expressed. I often write in full sentences as I feel textingis more clear and precise.”
A whole new level
Emoticons and emojis is now not only limited to expressing your emotions on views. The whole social media platforms are now full of jokes using emoticons and emojis.
Some of them are doing the rounds on WhatsApp:
What emojis/emoticons mean
Most of the WhatsApp smileys have standard meanings. Recently, Buzzfeed published a graphic depicting the meanings. Here they are:
