Recently I decided to kick off my own project in response to this post on Medium. The post discussed how the author spent two weeks commenting on Facebook statuses instead of liking them. In her post, she noted another experiment where an author spent two weeks liking statuses instead of commenting on them. I found their results to be fascinating, and I half jokingly asked myself what might happen if, rather than “like” or “comment,” I only commented using emoticons. For society’s sake, I went with it. This is a day by day rundown of what happened.
Day 1:
• I understand that emoji and emoticon are two different things, but for the purpose of this study, I determine that they are similar enough in concept to the general public to be interchangeable. This might save my sanity.
• It is incredibly difficult not to use my words when commenting. I’m a Facebook fiend, and I toss out comments on posts like Kimye does selfies.
• Someone has pointed me in the direction of Bitmojis to have more options of emojis, in lieu of words.
• This next 2 weeks of commenting using only emoticons and emojis is going to be difficult. I mean, just this morning I've seen two gun control posts and all I can find to show how I feel is 🔫 and 💨.
• Do you know how hard it is to cheer someone on during a triathlon using only emojis? Two shoes and applause hands. Sorry, Amy.
• Why do people wait until my Emoticon Week to make big announcements like adoptions, marriages, births, and other awesome things? I can only give you double pink hearts so many times in one day.
• It’s only day 1, and I’m already responding to text messages and emails with emojis. I think this project might help me turn back the hands of time. I’m getting younger, people. Like, I might be 13 before the day is over.
• In lieu of being able to really interact with people on social media, I have resorted to watching cat videos. What has my life become?
• An associate has lost a dear member of her family. How the hell am I supposed to emoji her my condolences? This sucks. I hate this experiment. Why do I have associates that are only online? Oh yeah, that’s my job.
• I understand that emoji and emoticon are two different things, but for the purpose of this study, I determine that they are similar enough in concept to the general public to be interchangeable. This might save my sanity.
• It is incredibly difficult not to use my words when commenting. I’m a Facebook fiend, and I toss out comments on posts like Kimye does selfies.
• Someone has pointed me in the direction of Bitmojis to have more options of emojis, in lieu of words.
• This next 2 weeks of commenting using only emoticons and emojis is going to be difficult. I mean, just this morning I've seen two gun control posts and all I can find to show how I feel is 🔫 and 💨.
• Do you know how hard it is to cheer someone on during a triathlon using only emojis? Two shoes and applause hands. Sorry, Amy.
• Why do people wait until my Emoticon Week to make big announcements like adoptions, marriages, births, and other awesome things? I can only give you double pink hearts so many times in one day.
• It’s only day 1, and I’m already responding to text messages and emails with emojis. I think this project might help me turn back the hands of time. I’m getting younger, people. Like, I might be 13 before the day is over.
• In lieu of being able to really interact with people on social media, I have resorted to watching cat videos. What has my life become?
• An associate has lost a dear member of her family. How the hell am I supposed to emoji her my condolences? This sucks. I hate this experiment. Why do I have associates that are only online? Oh yeah, that’s my job.
Day 2:
• Emojis severely impede my ability to communicate with people.
• This must be what it feels like to be intellectually challenged. There is an inability to properly communicate intelligent thoughts, and responding to posts that would normally warrant my time and attention are frustrating and I suddenly feel like one of those internet trolls I despise. They make no sense and they add nothing to the conversation.
• I wonder what’s on Netflix.
Day 3:
• Hieroglyphics would be better.
• Donald Trump is all over my news feed. Is it because of my emojis? Could the lack of real intelligent responses be sending bad political stories my way? Is this the end of the world?
• Oh, Heavenly Father. How much longer can I withstand this?
• Started binge watching Sherlock just to feel like I’m in the same room with an intelligent adult.
Day 4:
• What have I done? This is by far the worst decision I have ever made. My decisions as a young twenty something year old suddenly look like solid life choices.
• I finished Sherlock. I wonder what else is on Netflix.
• Emojis severely impede my ability to communicate with people.
• This must be what it feels like to be intellectually challenged. There is an inability to properly communicate intelligent thoughts, and responding to posts that would normally warrant my time and attention are frustrating and I suddenly feel like one of those internet trolls I despise. They make no sense and they add nothing to the conversation.
• I wonder what’s on Netflix.
Day 3:
• Hieroglyphics would be better.
• Donald Trump is all over my news feed. Is it because of my emojis? Could the lack of real intelligent responses be sending bad political stories my way? Is this the end of the world?
• Oh, Heavenly Father. How much longer can I withstand this?
• Started binge watching Sherlock just to feel like I’m in the same room with an intelligent adult.
Day 4:
• What have I done? This is by far the worst decision I have ever made. My decisions as a young twenty something year old suddenly look like solid life choices.
• I finished Sherlock. I wonder what else is on Netflix.
This is by far the worst decision I have ever made. | Day 5: • I might get fired. Did you know that at least half of my job consists of interacting with people via social media? Why did I think this was a great idea? You’re so stupid, Rose. You’re so stupid. • I’m going to watch Sherlock again. |
Day 6:
• It’s Saturday. The grass needs mowing. It’s a beautiful day. What a beautiful view I have from my front window!
• I wonder what’s on Netflix.
Day 7:
• I am most definitely going to get fired this week. How many posts has my boss tagged me in and I’ve just responded with the universal emoji for "okay?"
• I can only watch Sherlock so many times. I lied. I’m going to watch Sherlock again. And then I quit.
Day 8:
• I can’t do this any more. Every post that I see on my timeline is either a bitstrip, or a stupid picture, or Allen West singing Donald Trump’s praises and to be honest I’d rather see all of the snarky posts about Hillary and the baby posts and the cat videos even though I don’t like any of them.
• Forget this crap. Peace out, social sciences.
That’s right, after day 8, I quit. I couldn’t deal any more. There were a number of factors to my decision, but the biggest was my job. A significant part of my job relies on my ability to interact with people, and most of their preferred method of contact is Facebook. So I could post things, but I couldn’t respond to anything. I couldn’t ask for more information in regards to something posted or commented, and I had to rely on people’s ability to translate my emoticons into what I might be trying to say. I can’t and don’t operate that way. I’m a social person. My experience this last 8 days would be like sending me to a summit on communication and expecting me to only be able to communicate with everyone else (who have no limits) by using a deck of playing cards. I might have better luck with the cards, to be honest.
But there was a different side effect that I did not expect. Remember me writing about Trump and West? When I stopped commenting on the posts that I normally comment on, for some reason I started seeing a LOT more posts from Allen West’s Facebook page and a significant number of posts about how amazeballs Donald Trump supposedly is. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t because West was putting out more posts in that 8 days. Now, I don’t claim to know how Facebook does their algorithms and what-not, but I do honestly wonder if the lack of intelligent responses from me somehow resulted in the lack of intelligent posts visible on my timeline.
Now - don’t go calling me a left wing liberal just yet. I’m solidly in the Republican camp, and that’s part of what bothered me. I know the Don has been in the news a lot lately, and he’s a hot button issue (all of him is). But, somehow in 8 days, all other political posts were gone. When I visited my friends pages, I could see they were posting about other things, but those things weren’t showing up on my timeline. I honestly think that somehow, funny as it is, Facebook has Donald Trump posts marketed for people who don’t interact well with others. It only makes sense! Donald Trump doesn’t play well with others, so let’s market him to like minded people!
Anyway, that’s about the most significant thing I got out of this experiment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an entire list of posts I’m going to comment bomb now.
Many Kind Regards,
Katie
How else does social media affect our lives? Read how one writer now thinks in 140 characters here.
Original image credit: The All-Nite Images Flickr
• It’s Saturday. The grass needs mowing. It’s a beautiful day. What a beautiful view I have from my front window!
• I wonder what’s on Netflix.
Day 7:
• I am most definitely going to get fired this week. How many posts has my boss tagged me in and I’ve just responded with the universal emoji for "okay?"
• I can only watch Sherlock so many times. I lied. I’m going to watch Sherlock again. And then I quit.
Day 8:
• I can’t do this any more. Every post that I see on my timeline is either a bitstrip, or a stupid picture, or Allen West singing Donald Trump’s praises and to be honest I’d rather see all of the snarky posts about Hillary and the baby posts and the cat videos even though I don’t like any of them.
• Forget this crap. Peace out, social sciences.
That’s right, after day 8, I quit. I couldn’t deal any more. There were a number of factors to my decision, but the biggest was my job. A significant part of my job relies on my ability to interact with people, and most of their preferred method of contact is Facebook. So I could post things, but I couldn’t respond to anything. I couldn’t ask for more information in regards to something posted or commented, and I had to rely on people’s ability to translate my emoticons into what I might be trying to say. I can’t and don’t operate that way. I’m a social person. My experience this last 8 days would be like sending me to a summit on communication and expecting me to only be able to communicate with everyone else (who have no limits) by using a deck of playing cards. I might have better luck with the cards, to be honest.
But there was a different side effect that I did not expect. Remember me writing about Trump and West? When I stopped commenting on the posts that I normally comment on, for some reason I started seeing a LOT more posts from Allen West’s Facebook page and a significant number of posts about how amazeballs Donald Trump supposedly is. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t because West was putting out more posts in that 8 days. Now, I don’t claim to know how Facebook does their algorithms and what-not, but I do honestly wonder if the lack of intelligent responses from me somehow resulted in the lack of intelligent posts visible on my timeline.
Now - don’t go calling me a left wing liberal just yet. I’m solidly in the Republican camp, and that’s part of what bothered me. I know the Don has been in the news a lot lately, and he’s a hot button issue (all of him is). But, somehow in 8 days, all other political posts were gone. When I visited my friends pages, I could see they were posting about other things, but those things weren’t showing up on my timeline. I honestly think that somehow, funny as it is, Facebook has Donald Trump posts marketed for people who don’t interact well with others. It only makes sense! Donald Trump doesn’t play well with others, so let’s market him to like minded people!
Anyway, that’s about the most significant thing I got out of this experiment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an entire list of posts I’m going to comment bomb now.
Many Kind Regards,
Katie
How else does social media affect our lives? Read how one writer now thinks in 140 characters here.
Original image credit: The All-Nite Images Flickr
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