I don’t hate all emojis. I do hate how the vast majority of people use them.

Back when I used Skype, I freaking loved all of them because the animations made it very clear what someone is trying to express in an easy to understand way (assuming everyone in a given chat had a similar culture).

Discord is a not-so-close second. I like a decent chunk of the emojis because they are super expressive while being simple. More importantly, custom emojis allow for incredibly unique ways of expressing ideas that only a small group will understand. It’s perfect for inside jokes.

In general, though? Emojis are so freaking bland and inoffensive. 90% of the time that they’re used, there’s literally 0 reason for them to be used. I don’t need a page full of pregnant people and 16 variations of a family because it’s nowhere near as effective as saying “I’m pregnant” or “I have 3 siblings.” Whoever makes Unicode/these emojis is so hell-bent on inclusivity that they often ignore what makes human inclusivity so important: personality.

As for the people that use them on the daily? The vast majority seem like a hivemind. On YouTube you will literally find pages of “bro [insert incredibly basic observation] 💀😭” in a single comment section. It’s one thing if it were a reference to something insane or unhinged like a copypasta, but it’s another when it’s a subconscious “can I copy your homework” over and over again. People overuse emojis in the same way that people type out “lmao” with a straight face in response to a meme. They’re used out of laziness so often that they’re becoming filler speech.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk.