First of all, why do Ireland and Spain get to be the test markets? I have nothing against those two wonderful countries, but why are they the test markets? Hey Zuckerberg, how about you use that big brain of yours to figure out a way for each country to have their own emojis appropriate for their own culture. That doesn’t sound too hard does it?
Secondly, there’s a whole range of other emojis that I’d love to see on FB. How about a WTF? emoji? I can imagine that one would get a lot of use. Or maybe the I had no idea you were a radical political nutjob emoji. That one would come in handy a lot. Or maybe the STOP SENDING ME GAME INVITES OR I’M UNFRIENDING YOU!!! emoji. How about the Holy crap! Enough pictures of your dog/cat, don’t you have anything else in your life? emoji.
What I’d really like to see though is a feature where you can take selfies of you showing different feelings and then you can dial those up and put a little emoji of your own face with the appropriate emotion. That would seem far more personal than the plain smiley faces.
What really gets my goat (where’s the getting your goat emoji?) is that because Zuckerberg is a high I.Q., high end of the spectrum Asperger’s guy he’s created a website that forces the rest of the world to interact emotionally in the same limited way as him. Most people have heard the term Asperger’s. It is a disorder with a very wide range from autistic people with no ability to communicate at even the most basic level to high functioning, very intelligent people who have difficulty interpreting the emotional cues of others such as tone of voice, posture and facial expression.To be honest, I have no idea if Zuckerberg is Asperger’s in any way, but he did develop Facebook so he could talk to girls in college. Now he’s trying to boil all our emotions down into five simple smiley faces. But for someone with Asperger’s, that might be perfect because that’s how they interpret emotions, broadly without a lot of nuance.
When I started writing this today I had no intent of getting preachy or educating anyone on Asperger’s syndrome. My intent was to point out that social media of all types may connect us with more people, which is great, but if we lean on social media as a relationship surrogate we are crippling ourselves emotionally as a society. I can imagine a future in which people have lost the ability to have genuine emotions because of a lack of real, face to face interaction and we’ll just marry the people who gave us the most “likes” or heart emojis.
So who wants to hit the WTF? emoji now? And what Facebook emojis would you like to see?
If you enjoy #ThePhilFactor please share it on Facebook or Twitter (ironic, right?) by hitting the share buttons below. Have a great Saturday and get out there and emoji the hell out of someone you love! ~Phil
It doesn’t seem appropriate to just hit the *like* button and not say anything. This post demands a comment. Unfortunately I don’t have anything meaningful to add.
So …. Happy Saturday Phil! … and since it’s Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend … gobble-gobble 😉
Hey, Happy Thanksgiving Joanne! Yes, commenting is at least a better way to interact, and I think blogging is far better than FB.
I agree completely. FB has drifted far away from what it could have been.
I’d like a ‘for goodness sake get a life’ emoji for all the posts of cute kittens I see – I like cute kittens of course but I don’t need a hundred a day.
A get a life emoji would be awesome!
What is this phenomenon
The use of the emoticon
Our words we can’t rely upon
It’s like we’re all automatons
From here to the Pentagon
Where presidents will sign upon
Bills and treaties with aplomb
Just using these emoticons
“like” is not enough. I love this and totally agree with you.
Thanks Patricia!
Well said!
Thank you!
I’d like a “Biting my tongue” emoticon!
That would be perfect!
Holy shit, those “real life emojis” are gonna come in my nightmares O_O
I know! Those are super creepy right?
Truly, deeply creepy 😛
Agreed. There should be some sort of wtf emoji or how about a flipping the bird emoji lol
Maybe you could just type FTB for flipping the bird
Yes, yes, yes! To what you said. To what the other commenters said. Maybe FB needs to have a “well said” emoji for those few Facebookians who appreciate nuanced words used to convey complex feelings. Bet FB won’t make one of those.
Thanks Ally!
I have friends who enjoy them. I use smiles a lot ( oops).
hehehe!