Professor Emoji 👩🏼‍🏫 Stops by to Explain How We Use Language Online 😍 (with Dr Monica Riordan)

The Fluent Show

You can't see their faces, you can't see their hands, you can't hear their voices. But somehow, you still know how people are feeling when they communicate with you online. How does that work? 🤔

In this episode, I'm speaking to Dr Monica Riordan. She's an emoji expert and researcher who designs and conducts studies into how people express their feelings online.

Here's the tweet I mentioned in the episode. How would you read it?

a dog person!?!? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ https://t.co/HoyMRqWoq1

— Christian Cable (@christiancable) July 11, 2019

Insights:

• We impose our own meaning on what other people write and imagine what they would look and sound like if they said this.
• When your friends and language partners type in casual language that's difficult to understand...it's because you're doing well!
• Emoji are limited in what they can express and insufficient for the full range of human emotions
• Emoji are also used as self-expression, rather than a means of communicating the message
• Emoji is not an international language: it can transcend linguistic differences but it can't do the same for cultural and social differences

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Special Guest: Monica Riordan.

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Links:

• A yerba mate emoji is coming, thanks to a passionate campaign — Quartzy
• How Emojis took center stage in American pop culture
• BBC - WebWise - What is netiquette?
• Beyond The Smiley Face: Communicating Affect Online with Dr — Monica's talk at Women in Language. Ticket required to view.
• Bitmoji
• Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language on Amazon.co.uk