Only in America could a line of thought possibly arise to consider emoji in legal opinion.
I dont doubt the validity of the research and given how the global population is infected with the 'look at me' virus of glass jabbing, and using childish icons instead of saying/writing what they think/feel, one does have to think about how emoji will infect and undermine certain types of documents.
Should congress vote using emojis?
Will UN decide on severity on response to world events based on emoji divergence stats from its members posts?
Disclaimer: when im lazy i use emoji too. Can be much quicker to find than the words when Im not wearing my glass. Apart from that i find them silly. Mostly.
There was a case[0] of a man in Turkey who was murdered because he sent a text message with a Turkish 'I'[1] and the recipient's phone didn't render it properly, causing the message to be interpreted as a grave insult. Emojis are inherently ambiguous (especially since each platform renders each emoji slightly differently) and it could be easy to see similar situations to come up with emojis.
There's an extent to which the proliferation of emojis reflects people's inability or unwillingness to put in the effort of using words to express things, as you state. But the written expression is vital from a legal perspective.
For example, contracts are a necessary part of our economic system. And there is an importance (and often a necessity) for contracts to be in writing. As people begin more and more to rely on emojis to express ideas, in lieu of words, there is no reason to believe that we are far away from emojis making their way into contracts.
So, as absurd as it may seem right now to give such deference to emojis as to write legal articles about this, perhaps it's really necessary...
I would put less strength into the belief that there will be emojis in contracts, and more into the belief that there will be emojis in text entered into evidence in criminal cases, which must be interpreted for their intent to gauge mens rea or what-have-you.
There may not be emojis in formal contract documents, but an offer sent by a text message followed by a reply of the thumbs up emoji could be viewed as acceptance and legally bind both parties to the deal.
I dont doubt the validity of the research and given how the global population is infected with the 'look at me' virus of glass jabbing, and using childish icons instead of saying/writing what they think/feel, one does have to think about how emoji will infect and undermine certain types of documents.
Should congress vote using emojis? Will UN decide on severity on response to world events based on emoji divergence stats from its members posts?
Disclaimer: when im lazy i use emoji too. Can be much quicker to find than the words when Im not wearing my glass. Apart from that i find them silly. Mostly.