Physicists’ jokes were apparently so bad in the past that a new form of communication had to be invented so that they could be understood. We still use a variant of it in our daily lives.
What was the initial situation? Professor Scott Fahlman wrote a funny message in 1982 to the internal forum of Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. His joke was repeatedly misunderstood, sparking a debate about effective communication at the university.
The professor posted a message in which he supposedly explained that an elevator had been “contaminated with mercury and had suffered some fire damage” (via arsTechnica). He was apparently referring to a previous physics problem of a colleague involving mercury and candles.
However, the joke supposedly did not work and several people took the warning seriously. Even after further explanation posts, he could not convince everyone otherwise.
According to professors at Mellon University, the problem was the lack of facial expressions and audiovisual cues that people unconsciously give off during conversation or phone calls. Pure text from a forum cannot replicate human emotions and subtle signals. Researchers also wonder how a fear of making phone calls can arise.
Three simple symbols were the solution to the problem
How was the situation resolved? The failed joke led to a discussion about better communication and ultimately to the predecessors of our emojis.
The various professors made all sorts of suggestions for indicating sarcasm and comedy. Some said every joke should be marked with punctuation like a %- or *-symbol.
Ultimately, Professor Fahlman announced his own idea with the “:-D” symbol. It was meant to serve as a marker for humorous texts. The simple idea was so good that it spread further, thus becoming the precursor to modern emojis. Instead of joke marking, emojis can now even be considered consent in a contract.
How simple symbols became emojis
What happened next? It took some time until the first actual emoji was included in a text message. According to the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the small graphics only developed in the late 90s.
The Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita invented small graphics in 1999 that could be attached to a text message. These symbols were based on the previous emoticons and created the first emojis.
Initially, there were only a few facial expressions, objects, places, and some symbols that could be added to a text message. By 2005, there were about 76 of them. By 2010, there were already over 1,000 different small symbols. People also perceive symbols differently: A study on emojis shows: Young and old people have different perceptions; older generations often interpret them incorrectly
