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I’m an emoji addict. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I send them in almost every text and use Google's version on Gchat all day long. And yep, I’ve got Kimoji and I can’t get enough of it. (I mean, who doesn’t want to send the iconic crying Kim Kardashian West back and forth all day?)
But emoji use has always been divisive. Don’t use them in work emails. Don’t use them in breakup texts. Don’t overuse them — the list goes on. Even Refinery29's social media team is split on whether emoji are appropriate or not.
So, I decided to put my habit to the test by going a week without sending a single emoji. I wanted answers to my burning questions: Why do we rely on them so much? Would people think I'd stopped having emotions, or worse, that I was being harsh all the time? Would I still be able to tell jokes?
I set out a few rules before I started:
1. Using emoji in any personal communications would be forbidden.
2. I couldn’t tell anyone I stopped using emoji. I wanted to see if people noticed that I just stopped. However, if they happened to ask, I would explain what I was up to.
3. I could still use them as part of my job. As one of Refinery29's social media editors, I’m writing copy for our posts on Facebook and Twitter day-in, day-out. Using emoji is literally part of what I do.
2. I couldn’t tell anyone I stopped using emoji. I wanted to see if people noticed that I just stopped. However, if they happened to ask, I would explain what I was up to.
3. I could still use them as part of my job. As one of Refinery29's social media editors, I’m writing copy for our posts on Facebook and Twitter day-in, day-out. Using emoji is literally part of what I do.
Let’s just say that this experiment turned out so much harder than I expected.
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