In today's digital landscape, where standards are increasingly becoming the norm, it's crucial to employ critical thinking and heed the timeless wisdom of Uncle Ben, "With great power comes great responsibility." 🤔
We often find ourselves caught in a paradox, striving to create frameworks, systems, and standards to govern human behavior while simultaneously blaming the very tools, processes, and advancements that are meant to empower us. 🤯
Are we focusing on the right aspects of this ever-evolving landscape where everything is being standardized? 🤷♀️🤷♂️
Decoding Standards - The Emoji Example 📲
Let's dig into a familiar example - emoji and mobile technology. The Unicode Consortium is the standards body that oversees the intricate and complex world of emoji. They define how these tiny digital picture symbols operate, ensuring they can transcend geographical and language barriers and deliver communications across the globe. 🌍🤝
Emoji, as standardized communication symbols across all mobile communications devices, possess immense power. They facilitate communication for anyone and everyone worldwide, with their standardization serving as a universal communication system. Part of their strength lies in their universality – they not only enable communication but are also recognizable to nearly everyone, from toddlers to complete technophobes. Coupled with the ubiquity of mobile devices and the ease of use of emoji and messaging systems, standardization has empowered a powerful communication system for the entire globe. 💯
However, this standardization comes with tradeoffs. 😔 Emoji aren't personalizations—they are generalizations of our human experience. When seeking an emoji to convey a message, one must select from available options, often settling for the closest representation. 🤷♀️🤷♂️
As clever and creative humans, we've discovered ways to personalize and adapt, though it's not an ideal system. 🙃 Nevertheless, given it's a system that potentially connects up to 90% of the world's population, that's a pretty doggone amazing feat! 🎉
But as individual people, we long for self-expression and recognition—a universal desire to be seen, heard, and to belong within our communities. Thus, the emoji system is evolving and adapting as well. It now includes a variety of diverse emoji, allowing people to express themselves more personally (individually) with different abilities, skin tones, hair types, and more. 🧑🦽👩🦼👩🦯🐕🦺👍🏿👍🏾👍🏽👍🏼👍🏻🦰🦰🦱🦲👩🦲
And we will likely continue to see new individualizations of the human experience added to the emoji world in the future. As a species, we are always improving and trying to making our lives better and more desirable. The world of emoji communication is no different.
What started out as a standardization of universal picture symbol human communication is now being refined to suit individual people's desire to belong and feel seen and heard. And the world of emoji is the better for it.
Balancing Standards and Freedom ⚖️🌐
The key lies in finding a balance. We can create standards to define how things work, facilitating collaboration and understanding. However, we should never attempt to control or standardize human behavior. Our uniqueness and individuality are what make the world so rich and beautiful. 🌈
When we attempt to standardize everything around us, we stifle the very essence of humanity that has brought us to create glorious art, technology, modern sciences, medicines, and explorations in new frontiers. 🎨🔬👩🔬💻
Our mistakes lie in believing that we can standardize human behavior, emotions, or care. Attempting to do so can lead to a loss of freedom and individuality, eroding the very essence of what it means to be human. 😔
Technology - Our Ally, Not Master 🤖❌👑
Instead, we should view standards and communication systems as tools that aid us in achieving our goals. These are resources, allies, to be used to build solutions that help people solve problems. When we change how we perceive the landscape of tech helping humanity, vs how it can herd them or profit from them, we open up so many more possibles. We also unshackle our negaitve ideas of tech as an enemy and embrace it as an ally. 🤝 🔨
In 2023, Emojipedia reported that over 10 billion emoji are sent daily worldwide. These standardized symbols have become an integral part of our digital communications, allowing us to express our emotions freely, transcending language barriers. They are a testament to the power of standardization when applied thoughtfully. ✨
Embracing Our Digital Freedom 🦅
Tech has the potential to liberate us, enabling us to express ourselves and connect with others in exciting ways. It's about using these tools wisely, with guidelines rather than rigid standards. 💡
This way, we harness the power of technology to empower while preserving our personal freedom. 💪🗣️📱
Celebrating Individuality in the Digital Age ✨
True innovation and growth stem from embracing our individuality. It is not about standardizing who we are or what we do but rather empowering ourselves to use tech as a tool for expression, connection, and understanding. 🌈
The next time you send an emoji, think about the freedom it represents—a world where individuality shines through standardized, pixelated expressions and how tech communications support our uniqueness. We must always create a harmonious balance between standards that guide us and the freedom to be ourselves and to express ourselves. 🥳
In Solidarity,
Chief Moji Muser and EmojiIRL™ Creator
#emojiexpression #emojiIRL #getyourmojion #youmatter
☮️🖖❤️😊
