John McWhorter, a linguist who teaches at Columbia University, said that some men shy away from emoji because, as he put it, “Women use them more.” That may not continue to be the case, he added.
I haven’t used Emoji and never will. I’ve used :) for years…since maybe 1996? Never felt inclined to use a frown face or anything remotely similar. Smiley faces are used to indicate jest and are very important in text based conversations. I think iMessage now corrects :) to the emoji version but I usually don’t pay attention.
I also don’t think this is simply a Male versus Female communication trend. I use my 18 year old sister as a common use case into the next generation of communications. She touch types, can’t replace a hard drive in a PC and doesn’t even know how to uninstall a Windows application. She can fluently use iOS and communicates exclusively in Emoji. Before Emoji, she spoke in abbreviated ‘l33tsp3ak’ which I don’t even know if we call it that anymore. Anyway, her communication annoyed me not because I didn’t understand what she was saying. My point to her was that eventually she’ll need to type proficiently with grammar use and proper spelling for college or to write a resume. If she spends 95% of her typing with thumbs in abbreviated sentences, she won’t be prepared for the real world of writing.
She never listened. I see emoji as fun and convenient for young people but because I develop bad habits very easily, I’ll stick to traditional writing. It might take an extra 45 seconds to type out an SMS but maintaining my language skills is important to me as I write 6 hours a day for work.
Further, if you look at a teenager’s iPhone, it’s pretty amazing how few of the default apps they use. They don’t use iMessage/SMS, Mail, Phone, Weather, Stocks, Calendar (maybe rarely). Their iPhone is exclusively used for Snapchat, Reddit and other non-Apple services. My iPhone is almost 90% used by Apple’s default apps. I like it that way but my sister never checks her email. “Snapchat me” she says.
Oh well.