Sheffield Jamaica Correspondent-I love expression. Like body gestures and sign language, emojis and emoticons are great ways to express oneself, especially in situations where the right words cannot be found to convey what is being expressed. To supplement, it’s quick, easy, and even an idiot can send one. You’ll agree, not all idiots possess proper communication skills, right?

However, as emojis and emoticons aren’t formal and established methods of expression, there will ultimately be a breakdown in communication skills. I believe the downfall of communication skills is imminent for several reasons. As I’m no maven at communication skills, my reasons are strictly dogmatic.

Emoticons and emojis will never possess the capacity to communicate winsome words; we do. Proper communication skills are vital to expression, establishing common grounds, and understanding expressed emotions.

With constant use of emojis and emoticons, communication using spoken works will fade. As effective communication is an art and must be developed, that’s a clear indication that it can be lost. If we don’t use it, we’ll lose it; agree?

Additionally, emoticons and emojis aren’t established means of communication. Institutions and businesses do not acknowledge the use of emojis and emoticons. If you’re to submit an application letter and resume with smiley faces and the works, your credentials would be thrown out, merely taken out with the trash.

Effective and meaningful communication relies deeply on how well the recipient receives the information and interprets it. If the information is not interpreted as intended, there’s a misunderstanding. Emojis and emoticons are easily misunderstood. In some instances, people might get the wrong impression, maybe if the smiley or blush face is used too often, you might come across as a flirt, even if that wasn’t intended.

While emoticons and emojis save us a crap load of time when communicating, they do hurt us, especially when we have countless essays to submit. Be smart; be emoticon and emoji smart.

Owatonna, MN Correspondent-The increasing popularity of emojis and emoticons as substitutes for written words is amusing as well as puzzling. Seriously, an emoji movie? Nevertheless, as the history of language has shown us repeatedly over the millennia, the masses will evolve language, both verbal and written, however they want to. No amount of prodding by the experts or the “properness police” can stem a rising tide of innovative words or symbols that enter the lexicon of popular culture.

When reduced to their essence, emojis are valid communication tools because they express a feeling with a picture that would otherwise be expressed with a word or phrase. They are symbols that represent a thought more efficiently than several words. One can liken them to acronyms that are shorthand for an organization. Nearly all of us are familiar with the FBI and the CIA. Most of us understand those two groups deal with law enforcement and national security, respectively. But many of us might not be one hundred percent confident that those initials stand for Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency. It’s feasible that emojis may someday be developed that can replace acronyms, which would further shorten the written symbols that represent the thought.

For that reason, emojis might actually improve our communication skills with each other. Faster transmission of ideas is a good thing as long as the expression of those ideas is crystal clear. The risk is that without standards and accurate renditions of each emoji assigned to express a word or phrase, communication would suffer. Think of an emoji showing a red-faced character with water drops dripping downward. One person may interpret that emoji to mean the person who sent the message is sweating from the heat of the day. Another could interpret the emoji to mean the person who sent the message is anxious, nervous, or “sweating out” the wait before receiving some sort of news. So, miscommunication can more easily be a problem when emojis are used.

But similar to the great variety of handwriting styles that most of us manage to parse after careful study, most emojis could be correctly understood as long as the overall context of the full message is understood. Will emojis become the downfall of communication? Probably not. But they may significantly change the communication landscape.

Prescott Valley, AZ Correspondent– The constant use of pictorial and figurative kinds of representations through emojis and emoticons can be unnerving to many, and it does seem that their overuse has led to a downfall in communication skills.

When you see someone glued to a phone or keyboard and they are either texting away with a major smattering of picture representations for almost anything under the sun, or using keyboard numbers and other figures, you have to think that something is not quite right, other than to question whether that is their normal way of communicating on a regular basis?

Emojis and emoticons may seem fun and cute, but they were never meant to wholly erase language or become a permanent replacement for words. Using them lessens the acquirement of vocabulary and the use of real words in communication. If a person thinks about a one-on-one conversation away from the screen of a phone or computer, he or she has to use real words to make the transfer understandable and intelligible. One or the other party is going to be confused and disappointed if they are unable to use words effectively.

Communication with the use of words rather than symbols is a skill, and those that lack communication skills through the use of the spoken and written words can find difficulty dealing with and understanding almost any situation that requires their use. Pictorial and letter number replacement won’t work on a resume, job interview, a real job or in general communications, particularly on an educational or working level.

Many people are lacking in the skills to communicate effectively and efficiently through words. Younger people in particular are subject to using symbols, shortened words or word combinations to express themselves and many are unable to even write a complete sentence or express one in spoken words.

Kids aren’t the only abusers of emojis or emoticons as adults will resort to using U for you, gr8 for great, and a heart symbol or smiley face for love and happiness. These kinds of shortcuts don’t work on writing sample essays for the ACT, or a letter of introduction that accompanies a resume or a face-to-face interview for an important job. If a person doesn’t know how to answer an interviewer’s questions or simply doesn’t know what to say during an interview, there could be problems with almost any job situation.

The symbolic use of words has become the lazy way to communicate and that same outlook goes along with the view of work as a non-committal type of situation where the potential employee has little interest as to whether or not they are hired, speak well or can perform on the job, but boy can they text a string of emojis or emoticons!

Doing away with real words is not a good thing and when it spills over into areas concerning working relations, it can be troubling. The constant use of the symbolic representation for words has led to the downfall of communication.