Friday 5 December 2014

Of long queues and emoji-nazi

Who doesn't hate long queues?

That's what I thought. But they don't always seem to be bad. I was running to catch a bus today and was relieved to see a long queue which made sure I had enough buffer time. There are other occasions wherein one likes their queues long. Say you are speaking about something interesting with a fellow "queuee" or you have a lengthy form to fill until you reach the window. 

-mini rant, exaggerated for flavour-

Seriously, I hate this smiley/emoji/emoticon (and some of the others, e.g. happy tears emoji). Especially because people seem to use it all too often.
Image credit: http://emojipedia.org/

I will sound conservative but what happened to the good old :) :p ;) ? Are they not good enough for you? World was much better back then.

OK, may be this is an irrational dislike. But I have some reasons that sound logical -

These faces look weird. They do. No one makes such faces in real life. I imagine the person sending such smiley making that face and it feels discomforting. The good old :) :p didn't force me to look at an uncanny face. (Incidentally, I don't find the Gmail emojis as uncanny as Whatsapp ones). And people use this crazy smiley in any conversation whether or not it reflects their state of mind. It's a cop out for people who don't know what to say and type in a string of emojis. Yes, a string! OK, so you want to use an emoji, fine, but why do you have to repeat them? What extra information is gained by seven crazy faces as compared to one is beyond me. 

Lastly, When you send a joke, do not send these weird faces at the end of it. It's like telling a joke and loudly laughing yourself, instead of waiting for the audience reaction (or a laughter track for people without a sense of humour). That's not what we paid for. What? What did you say? .. didn't I pay you to send me a joke, ... , oops, never mind then.

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Ah well, I need to sit down and listen to some music.