The Emoji Fan is a portable ice breaker that brings “new facial expressions” we create in the digital world into our physical lives, injecting an element of fun that enhances our face-to-face communication.
The folding fan used to be an important object in social interaction and communication, particularly for relaying secret messages. For example, in Victorian times swiping a fan across the cheek supposedly meant ‘I love you’. Twirling it in your left hand could warn ‘we’re about to get caught! One wrong fan gesture had the potential to send so many mixed messages! But as fans went out of fashion and technology developed, this subtle art of communication faded as we went to more ‘direct’ methods of communicating through emails and texting, and now even that language has been simplified further through the emoji.
Emojis are often more than just copies of real facial expressions. They can sometimes present more subtle meanings and offer a way of expressing emotions that might be difficult to do IRL;-)
For example, the heart eyes emoji and the zzz emoji don’t exist as real facial expressions, and our heads don’t literally explode when we’re upset. However, when communicating digitally, it’s faster, more fun, and sometimes more effective to use these virtual representations of our feelings. We even get very good at manipulating emoji to add visual components to express our thoughts.
So why don’t we bring these emojis to real life, encouraging more face-to-face communication while also adding humor?
