New emojis have arrived, but should we use them?

Quite apart from the accessibility issues (think about navigating emojis as a blind, or even color blind, internet user), emoji-speak contributes to a generational disorientation with an internet culture in which images are rapidly overtaking words. Those of us who grew up on printed software manuals that could double as doorstops have struggled with a new wave of software tools that are documented only through how-to videos. Where people once shared newspaper clippings, we now circulate 2-minute video clips. And Snapchat guides for the baffled over-30 set are proliferating so rapidly that they’ll soon qualify as their own literary genre. I recognize that for many people, visual communication is more intuitive than text. For these visual learners and thinkers, the shift towards a visual communication culture makes relationship, learning and connection much easier, and enriches their interactions in ways that text alone cannot satisfy. To them, I say