For years I swore I would never use emoticons in any correspondence, because I am a writer and if you’re a writer, you should not write like a yahoo.
But in the crush of managing a business remotely, I simply don’t have time to construct sentences and paragraphs in ways to let my colleagues and customers and suppliers know how friendly, enthusiastic and supportive I am. So, the occasional emoji (and the embarrassingly frequent exclamation point).
But that’s in my fast-paced hourly correspondence, telling our COO I’m off on a noon run, and I’ll catch her when I get back! Or telling our publications manager that I’m going out with an old friend tonight so I might be starting a little slowly tomorrow. 😉
But I’m seeing professional communicators using emojis in articles they’re posting on social media. Sort of like this:
I got no beef with young Ellie.
But when I see middle-aged communicators do this—and I do, lately—I’m sincerely wondering why.
Do they think it makes them look hip (sort of like factory-ripped jeans, on a 55-year-old)?
Do they truly believe these banal little symbols add something to the sentences they adorn?
Or is there something I’m missing—an SEO consideration, perhaps, or new scientific online reading design principle—that will cause me to eat these naked words one day?
Communicator, talk to me. [Insert smiley fuckface here.]
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