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why do lemmy users hate the use of emojis ? (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by adam_b@infosec.pub to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm a heavy emoji user, texting is such a poor medium for communication, many times people get the wrong message, but with an emoji you'll get an idea of the face I'm making, so less chance of misunderstanding

I noticed that every time I add an emoji to a comment it gets downvoted, so I tested my theory, wrote a comment without an emoji, got upvotes, went back and added an emoji, got downvotes..

On Reddit people use emojis a lot, on Lemmy I NEVER saw anyone use emojis, my account is new but still for the time I spent here, I never saw the use of emojis

So, is it just me, have you noticed this small detail ? and do you miss emojis the way I do ? 😭

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[–] aaaa@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Emojis are a terrible method of communication. People have different interpretations of the same faces, and use them to mean different things. On top of that, they render differently depending on which device or service you are using, potentially sending a completely different message than you intended.

Tiny faces are ambiguous and usually don't help clarify a message.

Just use your words, it makes for better communication. Spell out what you mean and there's less room for misunderstanding.

[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I agree that tech is desperately needed to make emojis show up consistently between sender and receiver, it's also a bit ridiculous to claim that only using words is clearer than having an emoji in the message. Many emojis have pretty established meanings at this point or are so unambiguous across the emoji fonts out there that it provides a consistent mood. For example, putting a smile after something is no more ambiguous than :)

You may not personally understand a lot of them, but it's not true to say they don't hold specific meaning in many cases these days. Personally I feel they are a big improvement over just text, and help to clarify the mood behind the words as OP says. They can also provide a lot of entertainment when used well.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[–] aaaa@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Well I agree with most of that, and I suppose I should clarify that I'm not hostile to every decorative emoji someone uses in their text. My response is primarily towards the folks who use it instead of clear written communication, but it extends to people who overuse emoji to the point of making the text less readable.

Adding flavor or decorations (like the one used in this post) has rarely confused me, and I have no complaints there. But I'll still disagree with you that using emoji ever makes things more clear than using words. I have certainly never had that experience