By+Caroline+Moss

如今我們在網上聊天，用慣了表情符，有時不用反倒會有一種不會聊天了的感覺。甚至有一些青少年喜歡斗圖，一段群聊中常常只見圖片不見文字。表情符在如今的交流溝通中使用如此普遍，那是否存在這樣一種趨勢：在未來的某一天，有可能會出現(xiàn)表情符取代文字的情況？盡管這個想法看上去很瘋狂，但還真有人為此做了一個實驗。而實驗的結果在一定程度上還取決于表情符的特性——即使是同一個表情也可能會有不同的含義，尤其是在不同的文化背景之中，差異就更加明顯了。比如，國外網站上甚至還發(fā)布了一篇表情符指南，來解釋中國人發(fā)的某些表情符背后的深意，著實令人捧腹。又比如，各個國家都有更加青睞的那么幾種表情符，這背后有著有趣的文化解讀?？偠灾砬榉麖?0世紀90年代被發(fā)明以來，到今天風靡全球，本身就是一個值得研究的有趣現(xiàn)象。因為你不得不承認：過去沒有它的時候明明也挺好，可如今的你似乎聊天已經離不開它了。

1. Twitter DM： DM是direct message的縮寫，相當于新浪微博的私信功能。

2. recipient [r??s?pi?nt] n. 接受者；領受人

3. Gchat： 指Google Chat，又名為Google Talk、Gtalk，是一種即時聊天軟件，可以通過文字或語音發(fā)送信息。

4. converse [k?n?v??s] vi. 交談，談話

Emojis are everywhere. The little illustrated characters that are on smartphone keyboards are taking over the world. There are shoes with emoji on them， pants with emoji on them， emoji stickers， and the list goes on and on with no sign of ending. As emojis spread into our culture， I&apos；ve actually heard the following question： Are emojis moving to replace communicating with the written word？

To find out， I communicated via iMessage using only emojis for five days. That meant every time someone sent me a text or I wanted to send a text， I could only use the popular tiny picture characters to respond to or start a conversation.

I wasn&apos；t allowed to cheat by moving the conversation to Facebook message or Twitter DM1）， but I could send a phone emoji to indicate to the recipient2） of my texts that they could call me instead； I could not make the phone call myself. If I was trying to text someone and I saw that they were available to talk on Gchat3） instead， I could not cease the text conversation and pick it back up on Gchat.

I wanted to see if it was easier or harder than I expected it to be， yes， but I also wanted to see if I could influence those I was conversing4） with to overthrow their use of text and start using emojis while talking to me.

Spoiler Alert： It Was Hard

以下劇透：結果證明很難

Communicating with emojis was way more difficult than I expected it to be. First， there was the fact that everyone who contacted me via text， or those I needed to use text to talk to， didn&apos；t know that this was going to be my only way to communicate for five days.

There were people who were annoyed with me. There were people who gave up after a few back-and-forths. There were missed messages， mixed messages， and messed up plans. And there were people who immediately just called my phone to get the conversation moving faster.

The first emojis were created in the late nineties by Shigetaka Kurita， who at the time was working for Japanese carrier NTT Docomo. They became popular when Apple added the emoji keyboard to the iPhone 5 in 2012. Every emoji is defined officially in the Emojipedia （think of it as a dictionary for emojis）， but more likely， the definitions become molded5） by the way they&apos；re integrated into popular culture. For example， take the prayer hands emoji， two hands clasped together and giving off a glowing light. About a month ago， it was reported that this emoji was actually two people high-fiving， sending the internet into a tailspin6）. It turns out that report was probably wrong. It really is prayer hands.

The first person to text me was my colleague Alyson Shontell. She knew the experiment was happening so made a large effort to stump7） me with hard questions that， to be fair， no one would ever ask me via text， like "where were you born again？" She was in the room with me when she sent it， so I was able to roll my eyes at her.

表情符無處不在。智能手機鍵盤上的這些小小圖像正在席卷全球。有畫著表情符的鞋子，有印著表情符的褲子，還有表情符貼紙等，這樣的東西可以不停地列舉下去，似乎沒有盡頭。隨著表情符在我們的文化當中風靡，我還真聽到有人發(fā)問：表情符會取代文字交流嗎？

為找到答案，我將表情符作為唯一的交流手段，跟其他人用iMessage交流了五天。也就是說，每次別人給我發(fā)消息或者我想發(fā)消息的時候，我只能用這些流行的小圖片來回復或發(fā)起對話。

我不可以通過Facebook的會話功能或Twitter的私信功能轉移對話進行作弊，但我可以發(fā)送一個電話的表情符來暗示對方可以轉用電話跟我聯(lián)系；我不可以主動給對方打電話。如果我想給某人發(fā)消息，而又看到對方Gchat在線，我不可以停止用iMessage，轉用Gchat繼續(xù)交流。

沒錯，我是想看看這樣做會比我預想的要容易些還是更難些，但我也想看看我能否影響我的交流對象，讓他們放棄文字，開始改用表情符跟我聊天。

使用表情符進行交流要遠比我預想的難。首先，所有發(fā)消息跟我聯(lián)系的人或者我需要發(fā)消息與之溝通的人都不知道這將是我五天里唯一的交流方式。

有的人被我惹怒了，也有人經過幾個回合之后就沒消息了。有的信息被漏掉了，有的信息被弄混了，有的計劃被搞亂了。有人則當即就給我打了電話，想把話快快說完。

第一批表情符誕生于20世紀90年代末，發(fā)明人是當時供職于日本通信公司NTT Docomo的栗田穰崇。2012年，蘋果公司為iPhone 5手機添加了表情符鍵盤，此后，表情符開始流行起來。雖然每個表情符在Emojipedia網站（這可以看作是一個表情符詞典）上都有官方定義，但這些定義會受到表情符號融入流行文化的方式的影響漸漸發(fā)生變化。以祈禱表情符號（雙手合十并散發(fā)光芒）為例。大約一個月前（編注：英文原文發(fā)表于2014年9月），有報道說這個表情符實際上表示的是兩個人在舉手擊掌，這個消息在網上炸開了鍋。結果證明該報道很可能有誤，這個表情符確實是表示祈禱。

第一個給我發(fā)消息的人是我的同事艾莉森·肖特爾。她知道我在做這個實驗，于是頗費苦心地刁難我，問我的問題盡是些——說良心話——沒人會通過發(fā)消息來問我的刁鉆問題，比如，“你說你是在哪里出生的來著？”她發(fā)送這個消息的時候就和我同處一室，所以我當時就能給她個白眼。

Recently， Atlantic writer Kelsey Rexroat embarked8） on a week of only eating foods immortalized by emojis.

Though her experiment had nothing to do with communication， here&apos；s what Rexroat found by living—quite literally—by emojis.

"Dinner is spaghetti and red wine. It&apos；s not a far stretch from my usual diet， though I have a moment of dismay9） when I realize there is no cheese emoji， and I must pass up10） the aged Gruyere11） I had bought a few days earlier，" Rexroat writes.

Then there was the case of Alex Goldmark and his girlfriend Liza， who， last winter， decided that for 30 days they would only use emojis when communicating via their phones. In an interview with WNYC12）， the couple spoke about "what went wrong" during their experiment. Goldmark and his girlfriend explained there was an instance where plans had to be changed last minute， but Goldmark misunderstood what Liza was trying to convey to him via emojis.

This happened to me when I was trying to explain to my boyfriend Tom that I had booked both of our tickets for a destination wedding13） in several months. In turn， Tom thought I got a raise.

It was extremely frustrating but it forced me to pick up the phone and call him when I had a free moment.

There were very few glimmers of hope throughout this experiment， and I cherished all of them. It wasn&apos；t always terrible， sometimes （though they were rare instances）， people seemed to understand what I was trying to tell them. Take my college friend Rachel， for example， who was taking a bus from Boston to visit me in New York. We communicated via emojis briefly—and flawlessly.

Unsurprisingly， the easiest person to communicate with using only emojis was my 18-year-old sister. And I only slipped once： When my editor， Jay Yarow， texted me to tell me I was late for a meeting I responded with a typed out expletive14） and then quickly followed up with a dozen "poo15）" emojis.

My experiment wasn&apos；t as controlled as Goldmark&apos；s experiment with his girlfriend Liza. Instead of just altering one relationship by extensively editing my means of communication with just one person， I spread the idea across my entire social circle， the tradeoff16） being that transactions17） of conversation were much more shallow. One thing I agreed with while listening to and reading Goldmark&apos；s findings was that he and Liza felt that emotions were easier to communicate using emojis， whereas plans and questions were not. And unlike Rexroat&apos；s awesome "only eating food found in emojis" experiment， I really set out to find if replacing the written word was plausible.

The truth？ It&apos；s probably not going to happen. Emoji is better as a form of punctuation. It adds flair18） to otherwise normal， and boring statements in a way that a period， exclamation point， or question mark never could.

One of the most charming elements of emoji is that， while every emoji has a technical19） official definition， people use them to represent different things. Quite simply， it&apos；s a language that&apos；s more subjective than objective. It became very clear early on that it would never replace the written word， unless as a civilization we were able to come together and assign very specific meanings to each picture that could， under no circumstance， be changed.

Food Emoji For Survival

以表情符中有的食物為生

最近，《大西洋月刊》的撰稿人凱爾西·雷克羅特進行了一項為期一周的實驗，只吃表情符中才有的食物。

盡管她的實驗與交流毫無關系，但不妨看下雷克羅特以表情符里的食物為生（千真萬確）時的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

“晚飯是意大利面和紅酒，這跟我平常吃的沒有太大區(qū)別。不過，當我發(fā)現(xiàn)沒有奶酪表情符的時候，有一瞬間感到有點沮喪，我只得割舍前幾天買的格魯耶爾老奶酪。”雷克羅特寫道。

還有亞歷克斯·戈德馬克及其女友莉莎的故事。去年冬天，他們決定在30天的時間里用手機聯(lián)系時只用表情符。在接受紐約公共電臺的采訪時，這對情侶談到了在實驗中“出的岔子”。戈德馬克及其女友介紹說，有一次他們在最后一刻不得不改變一些計劃，但戈德馬克誤解了莉莎通過表情符表達的意思。

我也遇到了這種情況，當時我試著跟我的男友湯姆說我已經預訂了幾個月后我們倆旅行結婚的機票，結果湯姆那邊還以為我漲了工資。

這很讓人泄氣，但也讓我不得不在得空的時候給他打電話告訴他票的事。

這項實驗從頭到尾僅能看到那么寥寥幾絲希望，對于所有這些希望我都十分珍惜。情況并不總是糟糕透頂，有時候（盡管這樣的時候寥寥無幾）別人似乎明白了我竭力想要告訴他們什么。拿我的大學好友瑞秋來說，她要坐大巴從波士頓到紐約來看我，我們通過發(fā)表情符進行了短暫的交流，而且交流順暢無誤。

不出所料的是，只用表情符交流起來最不費力的人是我18歲的妹妹。另外，我只有一次失手發(fā)成了文字。當時我的編輯杰伊·亞羅發(fā)消息告訴我說我開會要遲到了，我敲了一個臟字回過去，然后趕緊又補發(fā)了十幾個便便符號。

我的實驗并不像亞歷克斯·戈德馬克及其女友莉莎的實驗那樣嚴格控制。我并非僅通過徹底改變與某個人的交流方式來改變與其的關系，而是把這個想法付諸到了我的整個人際圈，由此付出的代價是我與別人的交流變得粗淺多了。在收聽和閱讀戈德馬克的實驗結果時，我對其中一點表示贊同：他和莉莎覺得情緒更容易通過表情符表達出來，而計劃和問題則不行。與雷克羅特的“只吃表情符里有的食物”的那個有趣實驗不同，我是真的想要看看用表情符取代書面文字是否可行。

真相是？很可能不會發(fā)生這種事。表情符更適合當作一種標點符號。它能夠以某種方式給平淡單調的句子增色，而那卻是句號、感嘆號或問號永遠無法做到的。

表情符最吸引人的地方之一是，雖然每個表情符都有一個專門的官方定義，但人們卻用它們來表達多樣的含義。簡單地說，表情符是一種更主觀而非客觀的語言。從一開始這一點就很明確：表情符永遠也不會取代書面文字，除非我們人類文明能夠匯聚一堂，為每個表情符指定出非常具體的含義，并且這些含義無論在何種情況下都不會被人改變。

5. mold [m??ld] vt. 影響；改變

6. tailspin [?te?lsp?n] n. 混亂，慌亂

7. stump [st?mp] vt. 把……難??；難倒

8. embark [?m?bɑ?k] vt. 著手；開始做

9. dismay [d?s?me?] n. 驚恐；焦慮；哀傷

10. pass up： 放棄

11. Gruyere： 格魯耶爾奶酪，是瑞士的一種著名奶酪品牌，被認為是用于烘焙最好的奶酪之一。

12. WNYC： 紐約公共電臺，是美國聽眾最多的公共電臺，出品過很多知名節(jié)目。

13. destination wedding： 旅行結婚

14. expletive [?k?spli?t?v] n. 臟字；咒罵語

15. poo [pu?] n. （兒童用語）便便，臭臭

16. tradeoff [?tre?d?f] n. 權衡；協(xié)調；交易；交換

17. transaction

[tr?n?z?k?n] n. （人與人之間或社會交往中的）相互作用

18. flair [fle?（r）] n. 才華；資質；創(chuàng)意

19. technical [?tekn?kl] adj. （語言）專業(yè)的，專門的，專用的