Face Value

What’s with these crazy emojis? They’re fun to look at, aren’t they, the smiley faces, the frowns? Are they just a phase (or a face!) or are they here for the long run? I don’t use them much and haven’t used them in the blog thus far. But I’m considering it. Why? Because they communicate our messages to those folks who cannot read or at least those who cannot read the English language. While we have people from all over the world who regularly view Uncle Tommy’s Select Thoughts, we have no idea how many of these folks actually read it versus just look at it. The same goes for you readers here in the states. With literacy rates crashing to an all time low, we need to be sensitive to those who cannot read the written word. 

So, rather than using these little emojis as just a fun coda or add-on at the end of a sentence or as a quick reply to a text, we’ve started what we’re calling The Tommy Emoji Project, where the goal will be to create a universal language consisting of nothing but emojis. Our goal is to have an emoji version of Uncle Tommy’s Select Thoughts up and going within four years. 

Like drawings in caves which teach us about our past, we think the emoji language will tell our future.