Back around the first part of October, I rambled on here about punctuation and touched a bit on how people no longer use correct punctuation, but don\u2019t even rite or spel very gud\u2026 what with the texting and all.<\/p>\n
Well, apparently even I didn\u2019t realize the extent of the movement (problem?) \u2014\u00a0every year the Oxford English Dictionary chooses a Word of the Year. And guess what? This year\u2019s\u00a0 Word of the Year isn\u2019t even a word<\/em>!! Both you faithful readers remember that in October, I mentioned something called \u201cemoji.\u201d The Oxford English Dictionary chose the 2015 Word of the Year to be \u2014 a “smiley” face with tears \u2014 \ud83d\ude22. The term emoji comes from the Japanese e meaning \u201cpicture\u201d and mojo meaning \u201cletter\u201d or \u201ccharacter.\u201d According to the Oxford English Dictionary, \u201cEmojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens. Instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n In some ways I blame Apple for this movement \u2014 back in 2011 they added a readily accessible emoji keyboard to iOS 5 for the iPhone. I thought it was silly then and I still do. Emojis look like cartoons of faces, flags, food, symbols, vehicles, , etc, From what I can tell, the intent was to illustrate a point, but now they seem to be used to replace words altogether at least when we communicate with each other electronically. If communicating (accurately) with each other isn\u2019t hard enough, we\u2019ve now invented a whole new confusing way to \u201ccommunicate\u201d with each other. We now have a new language or vocabulary to tell people we love them, they\u2019ve made us sad, that we\u2019re laughing or job well done. Back around the first part of October, I rambled on here about punctuation and touched a bit on how people no longer use correct punctuation, but don\u2019t even rite or spel very gud\u2026 what with the texting and all. Well, … Continue reading
\nNow does that look like a word to you? It doesn\u2019t have any letters! Words are made up of letters! According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the chosen word \u201cbest reflects the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.\u201d Good grief!<\/p>\n
\nIf you have a smartphone (who doesn\u2019t) emoji are available to you as an optional written language, like English, French or Arabic. On my iPhone, the emoji keyboard is right between the Dutch and Estonian keyboards.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard, but am not interested enough to do my normal extensive research, that the entire text of Moby Dick<\/em> has been translated into emoji.<\/p>\n
\nI suppose that for the modern world, picking the \u201cTears of Joy\u201d emoji is a good choice.
\nWe all express our thoughts and feelings in different ways, but today when most people seem to have trouble with face to face or even voice communications, maybe this is the perfect way to send those thoughts\/feelings to that special someone and it be understood completely.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"