Listen to Gen Z and surveys – emojis are a poor communication tool

I have unexpected allies in my war against emojis: Generation Z.

Not that members of Gen Z (generally defined as people born from 1997 to 2012) hate emojis, although some do. But Gen Z members realize that emojis – those little pictures that people use rather than writing, you know, words – often don't communicate what is intended. In other words, if you think you're being cool by sending an emoji (maybe a thumbs up, maybe a crying face) to a 20-year-old, you're wrong. They may be embarrassed by you.

I'm sorry. But I'm also glad.

Maybe you can return to using words to express yourself. After all, it's been several millennia since we communicated strictly with cave drawings. Let's not go back there, because I don't want to return to the outdoor plumbing of that era.

The dislike of emojis by young people is real. Recent surveys show that while Zoomers (what we cool people call Gen Z members) use emojis a lot, they think older people often misuse them or use cringe-worthy emojis (the worst, according to them: thumbs up and the heart).

It's not just them. According to a study by Loom, a workplace video messaging platform, 91% of workers have had emoji messages misinterpreted because they used an emoji that meant something different to the recipient than they intended. Which happens virtually every time I get an emoji in text messages, resulting in me acting very old. "Is that corn? An arm?" I shout at Mrs. Brad, who ignores me. "Why would someone send me that when I asked about their vacation?" Then I wonder why they don't use something more clear.

Like words.

I've ranted about this before. I understand why people use emojis, but consider it stealing someone else's image instead of words. Wouldn't it be better to tell someone "thanks," or "I understand" than to send them an emoji of a thumbs up? " (Me to Mrs. Brad: "Are they telling me to hitchhike? Is that what this means? Which way is the thumb pointing?")

Of course, there are other issues with emojis. Some can involve cultural misappropriation. Meanwhile, some people want more inclusion in emojis. In fact, the Unicode Consortium, which oversees emojis, will add 31 to the library next year, which is a lower number than in most recent years. However, it's just adding to the items that can poison using . . . words.

However, emojis can be entertaining.

One of my favorite emoji stories is likely based on an urban legend. I read once that the emoji people commonly use to represent prayer – two hands together – was created as a high-five emoji. So when someone posts on social media that their grandma is sick or that they were in a traffic accident and require surgery, I like to think that the hands emoji posted by their friend is really someone giving them a high five.

"Way to go! Great car wreck!"

Which would put the high-five/prayer emoji people in the 91% of us who have had communication misunderstood. They could have used words and avoided it, but who am I to say that? I'm just an older guy who yells at his phone when he gets text messages with pictures.

Perhaps we can learn from the studies. If how we communicate results in us being mocked or misunderstood, perhaps we should change how we communicate.

Let us pray that we'll do it better.

High five!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.