“The Emoji Revolution”, the sketch that explores the mysteries of a worldwide phenomenon | EUROtoday
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Dare tens of billions. This is, on daily basis, the variety of emojis exchanged on the planet. A incontrovertible fact that makes you dizzy. And which reminds us that these pictograms with a easy and impactful design – incarnations of a temper, an emotion, a scenario, an object… – abound within the digital house to the purpose of changing into a part of our each day lives. Since their arrival in Japan in 1997, they’ve multiplied and in the present day there are… greater than 3,000!
To perceive this recognition, writer David Groison carried out a sturdy investigation from which he created a comic book strip with illustrator Paul Rey. The story follows the analysis of a younger fictional journalist, Andréa. David Groison and Paul Rey referred to as their work The Emoji Revolution (Editions Bayard Graphic'). A really apt title, as these little drawings have furnished our lives. But how did this revolution begin? With technological development, clearly.
Emojis stronger than gifs
At the beginning of the twenty first centurye century, we’re witnessing the democratization of cellphones, then smartphones. A serious change. “With them came instant written conversation. Before, communicating in writing included another temporality. It took at least 24 hours to receive a letter. Immediacy has created the need to add visuals that express our state of mind in order to be sure to be understood, underlines David Groison. For example, to ensure that a joke is well received, we associate emojis with it. This is reassuring. Ultimately, emojis are paraverbals. »
This notion is crucial. The paraverbal is a facial expression, the tone of a voice… In short, everything that a word cannot translate. “The power of emojis is that they are images with a universal character,” provides Paul Rey. Emojis may be understood by everybody, even when some will not be interpreted the identical manner throughout cultures.”As such, the impression of emojis stays stronger than that of gifs (Graphics Interchange Format), these very brief movies which have in flip invaded the digital house. Gifs take extracts from movies, sequence, cartoons… to transcribe an concept. But in case your interlocutor doesn’t know the movie or sequence in query, the impact of the gif radically diminishes, even when the message will get throughout.
The different benefit of emojis is that they’re primarily based on a basic dimension of Japanese tradition: kawaii. Paul Rey explains it to us: “ Kawaii means “cute” in Japanese. The nation has developed a complete iconography round this idea [de nos jours, les personnages Pikachu (Pokémon) et Hello Kitty en sont les plus emblématiques, NDLR]. And this iconography is infused in emojis. »
David Groison provides: “Emojis spread positivity. They are softeners, conversation facilitators. They are the kingdom of the heart and the smile. »
An idea for an emoji? Submit a file!
From young people to seniors, absolutely everyone has used emojis. But not always in the same way… “Depending on your generation, you don’t necessarily use the same emoji to express a similar feeling,” analyzes David Groison. To say that they discover one thing humorous, adults use the emoji which accurately means it: the smiley crying with laughter. When it's actually humorous, they use the smiley face that cries with laughter and is flipped. On TikTookay [réseau social prisé des adolescents, NDLR], it’s somewhat the cranium that returns. Subtext: “I died laughing”. »
Paul Rey summarizes: “As in a language, with emojis, there are different ways of speaking: sustained, slang…” And then, emojis accompany our ultra-connected lives. “We spend a lot of time communicating online,” feedback David Groison. We reside in a time the place every thing is accelerating and it helps us to ship a coronary heart or a thumbs up somewhat than writing sentences. »
This revolution additionally labored as a result of residents weren’t decreased to the standing of customers. Indeed, anybody who needs can submit an utility for an emoji whose existence they think about vital. It is a consortium referred to as Unicode which is able to validate it or not. And some have managed to have their emoji built-in into the supply already in place.
In the sketch, Andréa, the younger journalist portrayed by David Groison and Paul Rey, goals to get the wind turbine emoji adopted. Will she succeed? Visit all the nice bookstores for the top of the story!
The emoji revolution, by David Groison and Paul Rey (ed. Bayard Graphic', April 2024, 160 p., €23).
https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/la-revolution-emoji-la-bande-dessinee-qui-explore-les-arcanes-d-un-phenomene-mondial-03-05-2024-2559346_2920.php