Do you know what an upside-down face emoji means? Or what someone is trying to say when they send a skull emoji?
Sometimes emojis are harder to understand than words.
How often have you received an emoji and didn’t quite know what it meant? Or used the same emoji with different people—but meant different things each time?
I live and study in an international environment. My apartment, my classes, even my WhatsApp groups are filled with people from different countries and cultures.
And I’ve noticed something:
Emojis don’t mean the same thing to everyone. The same symbol can carry completely different meanings depending on who sends it—and who receives it.
Emojis are not one language. They are many languages using the same symbols.
At first, that sounds strange. But we already see this in real languages. Chinese and Japanese share some written characters, yet those characters don’t always mean the same thing.
Emojis are an extreme version of that. We all use the same set of symbols, but each of us speaks our own version of them.
That’s why they feel like a carnival to me—beautiful, loud, vibrant, and chaotic. They make communication richer, but also more confusing.
Because of this, I’ve become cautious. I often avoid using emojis outside close circles. And when I do reply, I keep it simple.
If someone sends a smiley face, I send one back. If they send a thumbs up, I return it. If they send a skull… I send a skull.
It’s not perfect, but it feels safe.
There are also things about emojis I find funny.
Like people trying to match emoji skin tones—and sometimes getting it completely wrong. Part of me thinks we should just make them all the same color and get on with it. If in doubt, use blue—like ink.
And then there’s culture.
Why is love always a heart?
Where I’m from, we say, “You are my heart.” But we also say, “You are my liver.”
It may sound strange if you’re not accustomed to it. But that’s the point.
A heart feels romantic to you because you understand it. A liver doesn’t—because you don’t.
Emojis work the same way.
They seem universal. But they aren’t. They are shaped by culture, context, and personal habit.
And that’s not a flaw. That’s just human.
So I wonder:
Is there anything truly universal about us?