#misunderstandings — Public Fediverse posts

#emojis #misunderstandings #musings

For the longest time (since their inception to about a week ago if we’re being precise), I thought the 🫂 emoji was an old fashioned film projector (which actually has its own emoji 📽️).

I thought people using it were offering sympathy by metaphorically suggesting they and the recipient watch an oldie feel-good film.

In my defence, my explanation is nicely romantic, and that hug one requires much more detail/contrast to be obvious (to me… and maybe only me 😅)

Earlier today I boosted a post from @adam_y celebrating the many different languages we see on mastodon. One corollary is that a lot of people posting in English are not native speakers and the nuances of what they write are not necessarily those of the Anglo-US-Antipodean internet. I’m a translator, and alert to the #misunderstandings I already see arising, so this is just to say don’t assume everyone uses English precisely as you do. #etiquette #LanguagePolicing #GoodFaith