In Bogost& #39;s article he argues that the flexibility of emoji are eroding because they are becoming too specific. He claims that new emoji lack the same expressive flexibility as the original more simple ones. Here is why I disagree (1/9)
#315threads #CCOM315

My little sister is very up on social media trends, and I often turn to her to explain trends to me. This summer I had to ask her why so many obscure emoji were under her & #39;frequently used& #39; … Her emoji board looked like: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤡" title="Clownsgesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Clownsgesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👄" title="Mund" aria-label="Emoji: Mund">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👁" title="Auge" aria-label="Emoji: Auge">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧚‍♀️" title="Fee" aria-label="Emoji: Fee">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✨" title="Funken" aria-label="Emoji: Funken">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧑‍🦯" title="Person with probing cane" aria-label="Emoji: Person with probing cane"> https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧢" title="Kappe" aria-label="Emoji: Kappe"> While mine looked like : https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😂" title="Gesicht mit Freudentränen" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Freudentränen">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥴" title="Woozy face" aria-label="Emoji: Woozy face">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😢" title="Weinendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Weinendes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💜" title="Violettes Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Violettes Herz">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥺" title="Pleading face" aria-label="Emoji: Pleading face"> (2/9)

I soon discovered that this was normal for people her age… or should I say people on TikTok. The seemingly random emoji under her frequents were super popular on TikTok and all had very unsuspecting meanings (3/9)

Take the "Man with White Cane" emoji (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧑‍🦯" title="Person with probing cane" aria-label="Emoji: Person with probing cane">) for instance. According to Bogost’s argument, this emoji is too specific and informative to have ideographic flexibility. However, evidence from TikTok suggests otherwise (4/9)

The https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧑‍🦯" title="Person with probing cane" aria-label="Emoji: Person with probing cane"> emoji has a meaning on TikTok which goes beyond the emoji’s specific depiction of a visually impaired person. People on TikTok use this emoji to joke about purposefully pretending they didn’t see something (5/9)

For instance, users will drop “https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧑‍🦯" title="Person with probing cane" aria-label="Emoji: Person with probing cane">” in the comments of a video if they watch something containing a fact which they want to ignore

Another instance when users comment “https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧑‍🦯" title="Person with probing cane" aria-label="Emoji: Person with probing cane">” is when they have a girlfriend but watch a video of a girl they find pretty

(6/9)

Another specific emoji which has come to suggest something else is the fairy emoji (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧚‍♀️" title="Fee" aria-label="Emoji: Fee">)This emoji originally designed to depict a small magical being who brings good luck, is now being used on the app (typically along with https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✨" title="Funken" aria-label="Emoji: Funken">) to signify sarcasm or passive aggression (7/9)

The usage of the https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧚‍♀️" title="Fee" aria-label="Emoji: Fee"> to suggest these things is particularly ironic given there is an emoji which was created for that exact purpose. Emojipedia states that “https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙃" title="Auf den Kopf gestelltes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Auf den Kopf gestelltes Gesicht">” was made to indicate silliness, sarcasm, irony, or passive aggression (8/9)

Overall, the usage of emoji on TikTok undermines Bogost& #39;s argument that new/specific emoji have little ideographic flexibility. People have clearly found creative ways to attach different meanings to these emoji, despite them seeming more restrictive (9/9)