My Experiment in Texting Using Only Emojis只用表情符聊天是怎样的一种体验

2017-06-10ByCarolineMoss

新东方英语·中学版 2017年6期

By+Caroline+Moss

如今我们在网上聊天，用惯了表情符，有时不用反倒会有一种不会聊天了的感觉。甚至有一些青少年喜欢斗图，一段群聊中常常只见图片不见文字。表情符在如今的交流沟通中使用如此普遍，那是否存在这样一种趋势：在未来的某一天，有可能会出现表情符取代文字的情况？尽管这个想法看上去很疯狂，但还真有人为此做了一个实验。而实验的结果在一定程度上还取决于表情符的特性——即使是同一个表情也可能会有不同的含义，尤其是在不同的文化背景之中，差异就更加明显了。比如，国外网站上甚至还发布了一篇表情符指南，来解释中国人发的某些表情符背后的深意，着实令人捧腹。又比如，各个国家都有更加青睐的那么几种表情符，这背后有着有趣的文化解读。总而言之，表情符从20世纪90年代被发明以来，到今天风靡全球，本身就是一个值得研究的有趣现象。因为你不得不承认：过去没有它的时候明明也挺好，可如今的你似乎聊天已经离不开它了。

1. Twitter DM： DM是direct message的缩写，相当于新浪微博的私信功能。

2. recipient [r??s?pi?nt] n. 接受者；领受人

3. Gchat：指Google Chat，又名为Google Talk、Gtalk，是一种即时聊天软件，可以通过文字或语音发送信息。

4. converse [k?n?v??s] vi. 交谈，谈话

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：结果证明很难

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.

表情符無处不在。智能手机键盘上的这些小小图像正在席卷全球。有画着表情符的鞋子，有印着表情符的裤子，还有表情符贴纸等，这样的东西可以不停地列举下去，似乎没有尽头。随着表情符在我们的文化当中风靡，我还真听到有人发问：表情符会取代文字交流吗？

为找到答案，我将表情符作为唯一的交流手段，跟其他人用iMessage交流了五天。也就是说，每次别人给我发消息或者我想发消息的时候，我只能用这些流行的小图片来回复或发起对话。

我不可以通过Facebook的会话功能或Twitter的私信功能转移对话进行作弊，但我可以发送一个电话的表情符来暗示对方可以转用电话跟我联系；我不可以主动给对方打电话。如果我想给某人发消息，而又看到对方Gchat在线，我不可以停止用iMessage，转用Gchat继续交流。

没错，我是想看看这样做会比我预想的要容易些还是更难些，但我也想看看我能否影响我的交流对象，让他们放弃文字，开始改用表情符跟我聊天。

使用表情符进行交流要远比我预想的难。首先，所有发消息跟我联系的人或者我需要发消息与之沟通的人都不知道这将是我五天里唯一的交流方式。

有的人被我惹怒了，也有人经过几个回合之后就没消息了。有的信息被漏掉了，有的信息被弄混了，有的计划被搞乱了。有人则当即就给我打了电话，想把话快快说完。

第一批表情符诞生于20世纪90年代末，发明人是当时供职于日本通信公司NTT Docomo的栗田穰崇。2012年，苹果公司为iPhone 5手机添加了表情符键盘，此后，表情符开始流行起来。虽然每个表情符在Emojipedia网站（这可以看作是一个表情符词典）上都有官方定义，但这些定义会受到表情符号融入流行文化的方式的影响渐渐发生变化。以祈祷表情符号（双手合十并散发光芒）为例。大约一个月前（编注：英文原文发表于2014年9月），有报道说这个表情符实际上表示的是两个人在举手击掌，这个消息在网上炸开了锅。结果证明该报道很可能有误，这个表情符确实是表示祈祷。

第一个给我发消息的人是我的同事艾莉森·肖特尔。她知道我在做这个实验，于是颇费苦心地刁难我，问我的问题尽是些——说良心话——没人会通过发消息来问我的刁钻问题，比如，“你说你是在哪里出生的来着？”她发送这个消息的时候就和我同处一室，所以我当时就能给她个白眼。

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为生

最近，《大西洋月刊》的撰稿人凯尔西·雷克罗特进行了一项为期一周的实验，只吃表情符中才有的食物。

尽管她的实验与交流毫无关系，但不妨看下雷克罗特以表情符里的食物为生（千真万确）时的发现。

“晚饭是意大利面和红酒，这跟我平常吃的没有太大区别。不过，当我发现没有奶酪表情符的时候，有一瞬间感到有点沮丧，我只得割舍前几天买的格鲁耶尔老奶酪。”雷克罗特写道。

还有亚历克斯·戈德马克及其女友莉莎的故事。去年冬天，他们决定在30天的时间里用手机联系时只用表情符。在接受纽约公共电台的采访时，这对情侣谈到了在实验中“出的岔子”。戈德马克及其女友介绍说，有一次他们在最后一刻不得不改变一些计划，但戈德马克误解了莉莎通过表情符表达的意思。

我也遇到了这种情况，当时我试着跟我的男友汤姆说我已经预订了几个月后我们俩旅行结婚的机票，结果汤姆那边还以为我涨了工资。

这很让人泄气，但也让我不得不在得空的时候给他打电话告诉他票的事。

这项实验从头到尾仅能看到那么寥寥几丝希望，对于所有这些希望我都十分珍惜。情况并不总是糟糕透顶，有时候（尽管这样的时候寥寥无几）别人似乎明白了我竭力想要告诉他們什么。拿我的大学好友瑞秋来说，她要坐大巴从波士顿到纽约来看我，我们通过发表情符进行了短暂的交流，而且交流顺畅无误。

不出所料的是，只用表情符交流起来最不费力的人是我18岁的妹妹。另外，我只有一次失手发成了文字。当时我的编辑杰伊·亚罗发消息告诉我说我开会要迟到了，我敲了一个脏字回过去，然后赶紧又补发了十几个便便符号。

我的实验并不像亚历克斯·戈德马克及其女友莉莎的实验那样严格控制。我并非仅通过彻底改变与某个人的交流方式来改变与其的关系，而是把这个想法付诸到了我的整个人际圈，由此付出的代价是我与别人的交流变得粗浅多了。在收听和阅读戈德马克的实验结果时，我对其中一点表示赞同：他和莉莎觉得情绪更容易通过表情符表达出来，而计划和问题则不行。与雷克罗特的“只吃表情符里有的食物”的那个有趣实验不同，我是真的想要看看用表情符取代书面文字是否可行。

真相是？很可能不会发生这种事。表情符更适合当作一种标点符号。它能够以某种方式给平淡单调的句子增色，而那却是句号、感叹号或问号永远无法做到的。

表情符最吸引人的地方之一是，虽然每个表情符都有一个专门的官方定义，但人们却用它们来表达多样的含义。简单地说，表情符是一种更主观而非客观的语言。从一开始这一点就很明确：表情符永远也不会取代书面文字，除非我们人类文明能够汇聚一堂，为每个表情符指定出非常具体的含义，并且这些含义无论在何种情况下都不会被人改变。

5. mold [m??ld] vt. 影响；改变

6. tailspin [?te?lsp?n] n. 混乱，慌乱

7. stump [st?mp] vt. 把……难住；难倒

8. embark [?m?bɑ?k] vt. 着手；开始做

9. dismay [d?s?me?] n. 惊恐；焦虑；哀伤

10. pass up：放弃

11. Gruyere：格鲁耶尔奶酪，是瑞士的一种著名奶酪品牌，被认为是用于烘焙最好的奶酪之一。

12. WNYC：纽约公共电台，是美国听众最多的公共电台，出品过很多知名节目。

13. destination wedding：旅行结婚

14. expletive [?k?spli?t?v] n. 脏字；咒骂语

15. poo [pu?] n. （儿童用语）便便，臭臭

16. tradeoff [?tre?d?f] n. 权衡；协调；交易；交换