Bitota Hearvey

Zack De Piero
WRIT 2
10/14/2015

Hearvey 1

The Power of Emojis

An emoji is an ideogram used in messages and a visual representation of what a person is
saying or how a person is feeling. People approach the use of emojis differently based on the
type of social media outlet they are using. In analyzing the genre of social media posts through
the sources of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I compared and contrasted not only the type of
post emitted from the users on each site but also the role of emojis in these posts.
Before you understand the impact of emojis in different social networks you must first
understand the conventions and purpose of a social network and its postings. In general, the
purpose of a social network is to keep up with what is going in your interests whether it be your
friends, family, favorite singer, favorite news broadcasting channel, hockey club, etc. The
purpose of the posts being made is to keep whomever is interested in you updated on what is
going on in your life. Social network posts have several conventions that make them what they
are: they tell your opinion, feelings, current physical state, good news, bad news, etc. These posts
can be happy, sad, funny, depressing, thoughtful, or even confusing. They can be pictures,
videos, links to websites, and even music clips. Posts can also be written as full out sentences or
as super shorthand, text message style writing.
Social networks audiences are generally affiliated with the younger generation given that
89% of young adults, age 18 to 29, and 72% of kids, high school grad or less, use social
networking sites (Social Networking Fact Sheet). This affiliation is due to the fact this
generation, the new millennium, has grown up with technology since birth and therefore, are
more apt to try and apply new technologies (social media and networking) in all aspects of their

Hearvey 2
lives (Generation Y in Social Media). However, regardless of age, the audience of social
networking posts will always be whomever is interested in you. According to Linkedin, the age
demographic for Instagram users has a 37% youth percentage compared to Facebooks 28.7%
and Twitters 35% (Linkedin).
Emojis are used to add substance to a persons social networking post. This substance
comes in the form of emotion, humor, and understanding. The purpose of an emoji is to visualize
what ones saying or how they are saying it. Whenever an emoji is used, the context that it was
used with usually appeals to a younger audienceteenager, young adultand the tone,
regardless, of whatever emoji used, will have a hint of comicalness. An example of this can be
seen through an interview that Caroline Moss, from the Business Insider, had with eighteen-yearold Hope R. In the interview Hope explains how using emojis is her new normal and how
prevalent its use is in her communication with her friends (Business Insider).
The use and effect of an emoji is based on the conventions of the posts for that social
network. Twitter, known for its concise way of keeping people in the loop, is not known to be the
appropriate place for formal relations given that posts are shortat most 140 charactersand
hold an informal tone. Given a limited character count, a person making a post on twitter is
constrained in how much he can say. On the contrary, Facebook does not have a word limit, so a
person is free to express themselves with as many words and necessary to get their point across.
Facebook posts range from informal to formal depending on the purpose of the page. Instagram
posts are either a picture or a video with a caption underneath. As important as the picture and
video arebecause they are the central focus and purpose of the sitethe captions underneath
add a lot of context to what you are seeing. They tell where you are, what you are doing, a story,

Hearvey 3
an irrelevant comment, how you are feeling, an abstract statement, or it can just be as simple as
one emoji. Depending on which site you are posting on, an emojis role varies in effectiveness.
On Facebook its role is not as important as on Twitter given that people have enough space to
explicitly say and describe what they mean. Whereas, on twitter, with the word count limit, an
emoji can convey a lot of meaning in a short amount of space. On Instagram captions, as well as
on Facebook and Twitter, emojis help support the meaning of the message being conveyed.
Many times the emotion face emojis are used in a caption to show the persons feelings on the
image or video in their post.
In Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, he mentions that in order to understand a genre you
need to consider the context in which it is being used (Dirk, 23). In social networking posts
depending on the audience and source in which the post is being made, the implications of the
post and use of an emoji will vary. On Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posts, they help to show
a current state of feeling or represent a persons facial reaction to something in regards to the
content of the post. On Twitter @IEatLatinasWithAdobo posted a video of a guy who, for no
reason, had a problem with the fast food workers in the drive through, and this video was posted
with the laughing emoji so that before you even watch it, you know it is supposed to be funny
("Y'all Put Ice Cream in My Ice Cream Cone"). In another case, @melmartella tweeted all my
church friends were talking about how ugly and awkward my smile is with several smiley face
emojis following the statement, showing the sarcasm of the post by making her seem happy at
something that she was displeased about (All My Church...). That tweet displays how an emoji
can change the whole tone and meaning of the tweet because the emoji makes her disdain with
the situation a little more lighthearted (All My Church...).

Hearvey 4
In a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram post it is also common for an emoji to stand in
place for a word or a slang term. It can be used as a visual shorthand or as way to spice up a post.
The one hundred sign emoji is common on twitter to use in place of the slang term, one hunnid
which means all the way or keeping it real. When people use that emoji in a post it signifies that
in whatever their saying they either agree with it all the way or that whatever they are saying is
real and honest. An emoji setting the tone, like in the previous example, is commonly done on
Facebook and Twitter because clearly exemplifies the meaning of the post by the facial image of
the emoji. Also regardless of which emoji you use, as long as it is used it adds a lighthearted,
comical tone to the post.
My argument dealt with the genre of social networking posts, however, that is just one
many genres that make up our lives. A genre is a repeated rhetorical situation whose content is
determined by us, the people (Dirk, 20). When dealing with social networking posts you notice
the reoccurring convention of posts being related to the writer one way or another. When you
think about it though, it was the parts of society using these sites that determined that personal
interest was going to be the main function of intent for the posts of these sites. Whereas, the
commonality of these posts could have been decided upon to have been about animals or
astrophysics rather than self. Genre is really important because it helps us understand the context
of what we do, hear, see, and like. Genre should be acknowledged by anyone who cares about
the conventions making up our world.

Works Cited
Brodzky, Brandon. "Social Media User Statistics & Age Demograghics for 2014." Linkedin. N.p., 18
Nov. 2014. Web.
"Generation Y in Social Media | Emplo.com." Emplocom Generation Y in Social Media Comments.
N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
IEatLatinasWithAdobo. ""Y'all Put Ice Cream in My Ice Cream Cone"
pic.twitter.com/Oz8vROEAvw." Twitter. Twitter, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Lowe, Charles, and Pavel Zemliansky. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN:
Parlor, 2010. Web.
Mel. "All My Church Friends Were Talking about How Ugly and Awkward My Smile
Is #sarcasticsmiley." Twitter. Twitter, 26 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 Oct.
2015.
Moss, Caroline. "'People Don't Use Words Any More': A Teenager Tells Us How To Use Emojis
Properly." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 06 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
"Social Networking Fact Sheet." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. N.p., 27 Dec. 2013.
Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Did Not Meet

Expectations

Met Expectations

Thesis Statement

Exceeded
Expectations

X-

Use of Textual Evidence

from Genres
X

Use of Course Readings

X-

Analysis
Organization/Structure

Attention to
Genre/Conventions and
Rhetorical Factors

Sentence-level Clarity,
Mechanics, Flow
Bernice,
Other Comments

This paper has a bunch of potential, and I know that you can get
there. I think that the most important step you can take here is to
consider: what, exactly, am I arguing here? What conventions am
I hoping to analyze, whats their significance, and why?
Id also like you to weave in a LOT more textual support -- win
me over with evidence, then remind me about how/why this
evidence fits into your larger argument (think: analysis). Make
sure you work in the course readings too -- I think you might find
that they work pretty effectively right after the Intro as a way to
hash out how youre using these terms in your paper.
Please review my comments and let me know -- always! -- if you
have any questions.
Z
6.5/10