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+--- Thread: Why is Emoji part of the Unicode standard? (/showthread.php?tid=6865)
Why is Emoji part of the Unicode standard? - Dark Jaguar - 18th June 2015
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/06/burrito-sign-of-the-horns-and-35-other-emoji-approved-in-unicode-8-0/
Unicode by itself makes sense. Standardize the lettering from written languages around the world so that it "just works" on any machine that supports it. I try to use unicode whenever possible.
Emoji are illustrated versions of emoticons.
These: :crap:
:D:)
:evil:
:loopy:
:(Now, in theory, adding graphical representations of certain symbols to unicode isn't a bad idea. It's just an expansion of a standard meant to help people around the world communicate more easily. You've got things like the six universal human facial expressions, arrows, and certain other universal signs that cut across cultures. Then you've got emoji. They are routinely bloating up standardized emoji with more and more pointless symbols that, more often than not, don't really cut across cultures so easily. A lot of their hand gestures, for example, are very western-centric, and as such there's not much point including them here. More importantly, anyone who wants to support Unicode 8, for example now needs to dedicate time and artists towards illustrating EVERY emoji in the standard. As the emoji part of the standard becomes more and more bloated, individual companies will start to feel less inclined to use the full standard. Once they start cutting some of the standard, who's to say they won't cut more, like Hebrew characters? Eventually, there'll be no point to it.
Now, I say "bloated" but it's absolutely true that unicode has "room" for way more than this before the standard is actually anywhere near "full". Still, what a bunch of work to give people to do. Also, every single face is another chance for some artist to screw something up and draw something horribly offensive. Just, you know, a possible issue there.
Why is Emoji part of the Unicode standard? - A Black Falcon - 18th June 2015
So smilies are now known as "emojis"? I guess I'd heard the term, with relation to social media sites and such, but haven't really paid attention to that stuff. As for some being in unicode, though... why not? I guess you have a point, but they're used so frequently online that it kind of makes sense to include them...
Why is Emoji part of the Unicode standard? - Dark Jaguar - 22nd June 2015
It's not that ALL smilies are now emoji. Emoji refers to a very specific set that's part of the unicode standard. They're smilies that have been upjumped above their station to proper "letters" in their own right.