Question

Notes from the Emoji Graveyard
News: Timely Features

So you've come up with a totally awesome idea for a brand-new emoji that you think people everywhere will want to use like now. Well, don't just sit there with your thumbs in texting position waiting for it to pop up on your emoji menu. Submit your idea to the Unicode Consortium (UC) in Silicon Valley, California, for consideration. Since 1991, the UC's selection committees have decided which new emojis get a emoji image thumbs up and which ones end up in the emoji graveyard.

But be warned: You may end up emoji image crying face because the UC approves very few new emojis.

Here's just a small sampling of ones the UC rejected in recent years, beginning with faces and hands: A forlorn face with three unsightly red splotches on it. A confused face that smells something bad but doesn't know where the smell is coming from. A displeased face banging its head against a wall. Two hands doing a high five. And a single hand doing a mic drop. That last one seemed like a shoo-in, but nope!

If food emojis are your thing (and who doesn't like emoji image piece of pizza or emoji image ice cream cone served up in their texts?), don't expect to find any walnuts or green beans on the emoji menu. Both ended up on the chopping block, buried next to cabbage and mustard seeds. There have also been plenty of animal and plant rejects, like a potted cactus, a squirrel, a werewolf, and every kind of dinosaur you can think of. Other emojis that never made the cut defy category and classification, like George Washington jumping on a trampoline, a turtle with a fried egg on its back, and a spider on skis. emoji image thoughtful face with one hand on chin

So why were they all rejected? They didn't meet the criteria as detailed by the UC. Keep in mind that emojis take up significant cell phone memory space. So the UC is disinclined to populate the emoji world with an excess of new choices. In addition, emojis aren't intended to represent every single object on the planet. Sure, they can help us express ourselves better and more creatively. But they're meant to be the seasonings, not the meal itself. That's why there are only slightly more than 3,000 UC-approved emojis in existence, and on average, only 70 new ones are chosen annually. So it's an uphill battle to get selected.

The most important selection criterion for an emoji-to-be is frequency of usage, meaning millions of people will use it a lot. That rules out George Washington on a trampoline and most of the other emoji rejects listed above. Another important criterion is that the emoji has some notable metaphoric or symbolic meaning. For example, a mule represents stubbornness, a pig suggests sloppiness, and a spider suggests ookiness. But what does a walnut or a squirrel symbolize? True, a squirrel could suggest a prudent person who stockpiles for the future. But let's be realistic—how often will someone need to use that concept in a text?

A third important criterion is that the emoji breaks new ground. And that brings us to the 59 distinct emojis that the UC approved for release in 2019. (The total amount comes to 230 if you tally up the variations in gender and skin tone.) Many of the new emojis represent people previously left out of the mix, most notably individuals with disabilities. The emoji world now includes a deaf man and woman, an ear with a hearing aid, people in both motorized and manual wheelchairs, people with probing canes, a guide dog, and a mechanical arm and leg.

Other new emojis include a skunk, an orangutan, a yawning face, a juice box, a melting ice cube, and geometric shapes in a variety of colors. Maybe the UC should add one more—a face with egg on it, for all the unfortunate emojis that went splat and ended up in the emoji graveyard. Now this would be the perfect time for a mic drop emoji, but we can't have everything, can we?

QUESTION 7


7 / 8

Which passage from the Article best supports the idea that proposals for new emojis come from the general public?

A third important criterion is that the emoji breaks new ground. And that brings us to the 59 distinct emojis that the UC approved for release in 2019. (The total amount comes to 230 if you tally up the variations in gender and skin tone.) Many of the new emojis represent people previously left out of the mix, most notably individuals with disabilities. The emoji world now includes a deaf man and woman, an ear with a hearing aid, people in both motorized and manual wheelchairs, people with probing canes, a guide dog, and a mechanical arm and leg.
So you've come up with a totally awesome idea for a brand-new emoji that you think people everywhere will want to use like now. Well, don't just sit there with your thumbs in texting position waiting for it to pop up on your emoji menu. Submit your idea to the Unicode Consortium (UC) in Silicon Valley, California, for consideration.
Here's just a small sampling of ones the UC rejected in recent years, beginning with faces and hands: A forlorn face with three unsightly red splotches on it. A confused face that smells something bad but doesn't know where the smell is coming from. A displeased face banging its head against a wall. Two hands doing a high five. And a single hand doing a mic drop. That last one seemed like a shoo-in, but nope!
The most important selection criterion for an emoji-to-be is frequency of usage, meaning millions of people will use it a lot. That rules out George Washington on a trampoline and most of the other emoji rejects listed above. Another important criterion is that the emoji has some notable metaphoric or symbolic meaning.

Citations

Answers

GPT-4o mini
The passage that best supports the idea that proposals for new emojis come from the general public is:

"So you've come up with a totally awesome idea for a brand-new emoji that you think people everywhere will want to use like now. Well, don't just sit there with your thumbs in texting position waiting for it to pop up on your emoji menu. Submit your idea to the Unicode Consortium (UC) in Silicon Valley, California, for consideration."

This excerpt explicitly invites individuals from the general public to submit their ideas for new emojis to the Unicode Consortium, indicating that proposals for new emojis originate from everyday people.

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