Saturday 19 November 2016

Thinking by numbers


Google may have made it next to impossible for innebriated bloggers to block anyone, but they have replaced this facility with an emoji button!

When I tried to use it just now, I was invited to draw an image in a box using the cursor, and was delighted at how it made every one of my drawings look as though it was done by a four year-old. Sadly, this drawing box is a search tool only and your drawings cannot be put up on the post without photographing them seperately.

I drew the ubiquitous and universal symbol for a cock and balls with a dotted line at the top end, and Google suggested an emoji of a guitar. Useless.

I really don't understand the current obsession for the tiny little emojis at the end of every text message. Sometimes a message will consist of nothing but an emoji, with no text at all.

I was excitedly telling my grandson that my new phone has a facility to take dictated texts (via a text), and he replied by saying, 'Yes yes, but have you tried the emojis yet?!' Is this what we have been reduced to?

I heard of a group of people here - women, I think - who get together once a week and sit around filling-in children's colouring books. I think they find it cathartic to be able to revert back to childhood and switch-off from anything as taxing as making one's own drawings or paintings from scratch, as they chat to each other whilst sipping coffee. It's not even as taxing as knitting.

These emojis began life as the 'smiley face', and the smiley face was an overt/covert symbol of an ecstasy pill in the 1980s.

When the ecstacy wore off, this gave birth to the 'frowny face', which - in turn - developed into the 'angry face', and from thence into all manner of expressions which were supposed to let someone know what you were thinking without using words. It is hard enough to let someone know what you are thinking by using words let alone pictures, so the scope for misunderstanding eclipses even Ursula's capability.

I love the story about David Cameron receiving a text from a friend, telling him that her father had died.

He replied, 'lol', thinking it stood for 'lots of love!

LOL!

27 comments:

  1. I don't understand emojis, and ignore them. My granddaughter overtly dislikes them. There is a movie store we pass that has some on their billboard. I asked what they meant, and Laura replied that the store owners are stupid. :-)

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    1. Good interpretation. My last phone didn't have them in its repertoire, so when people sent them to me they appeared as little blank boxes. Perfect.

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    2. I got some blank boxes the other day. I wondered what they were.

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    3. Now you know, Terry. You haven't missed out on much.

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  2. At the last David Cameron and I have something in common.

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    1. Yes, I thought it meant that when I first saw it. It just shows you need to learn the language before you use it.

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    2. I have now caught up and what thrills me is
      ROFLMAO

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    3. I think I learned that one before LOL.

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  3. They can be handy sometimes ... my friend and I were discussing Mr. Trump and I could use the finger thingy that he does !! { Oooer missus !! }
    Is H.I's phone working yet ? XXXX

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    1. Google doesn't seem to have any obscene ones. No - it takes forever for them to unlock phones from the network - especially T-Moblie (which is Orange, which is EE - the worst of the lot!)

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    2. Giff Gaff are a blessing. I don't know why everyone doesn't get out of their contracts and on to them. I pay £7.50 a month, and H.I. has signed up to £5 per month.

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    3. I pay a lot more than that per month, £30. I wonder what I get that you don't or won't get. I got my bill capped while I was in Russia to £150 and I suppose that was a blessing considering I carried on using the internet and blogging on the train and never got cut off. The bill came last week and it was £120. I was ok with it but a cheaper deal would be nice.x

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    4. Probably not much more. You can pay Giff Gaff about £27 p.m. but I don't even use up all my time, unlimited texts or data bytes at £7.50. Most people pay for the phone 3 times over with a contract, but I have always bought my phones outright.

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    5. Unsolicited testimonial territory...

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    6. I have an open Giff Gaff card which I could send to you, giving you a and H.I. free £5 credit each on your extras. Of course, you would have to give me your address and run the risk of being stalked...

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    7. Tom, the obscene emoji is the eggplant (or the aubergine in your lingo). Have no idea why - was just told that by an emoji-using relative.

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    8. Really? When in Cuba, if you want some Papaya fruit, you can no longer call it by that name because it means 'a vagina'. You have to ask for 'that fruit'.

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  4. I don't use emojis and can't always translate those that people leave me in messages. Some of my much younger friends seem to like them as a sort of shorthand and also as a way to show they are part of that tribe. I don't have tattoos either, but do have several facial scars from long ago skin cancer surgery. Radical piercing! Fortunately, time and wrinkles have helped smooth out the scars.

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    1. Apparently, the best way to knock years off is to freeze to death. They found a woman climber's body up in some mountains once, and her skin was smooth and almost wrinkle-free. Something to do with water expanding when frozen. I don't have any tattoos either but one or two scars.

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  5. You have to 'copy and paste' your prick drawing. I played with the new facility having just found it yesterday.

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  6. I have noticed an increase in the use of these darn things by my family and friends..I really dislike them and can't foresee a time when I will use them...in fact even wearing spectacles I find them hard to see let alone understand!

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    1. They will pass. The ones that move are 10 times worse.

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  7. I just love it that a cock and balls is likened to a guitar. Who woulda thunk it?

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