Emoji are not only core to today’s online communication, they are also on everyone’s lips. The well-known (and popular) visual language is constantly evolving; new images are regularly introduced and provide a topic of conversation in many ways. At the same time, their repertoire is an indicator of societal as well as internet health we shouldn’t underestimat. We’re happy to invite you to the expert panel discussion “Talk Emoji To Me: How digital visual language impacts communication, culture and inclusion” on November 29 at Mozilla Berlin to discuss with us the current status of emoji, their significance for and impact on our analog as well as digital communication, and whatever else you feel should be considered.
Laughing faces, hearts, animals or even food – messengers, browsers and other apps nowadays provide us with countless emoji to help out in almost every situation. They may be used in order to emphasize statements or to communicate without words, since a picture can indeed sometimes express more than words allow us to say. Or we might simply be at a lack of words.
Last year, director Tony Leondis even dedicated an entire animated movie to the tiny visuals, with a global box office of over 200 million USD. Emojis are subject to numerous scientific papers and already made it into the Oxford Words of the Year ranking. Established in the 1980s as Emoticons by Computer Science Professor Scott E. Fahlmann, they are now so ubiquitous in our digital (and sometimes analog) communication that they are understood across generations and cultures – despite the fact that there are now almost 3,000 different emoji, as collected on the Emojipedia.