[mostlylurks]

> I would love to see the day where emoji becomes a viable form of cross-cultural shorthand.

I have my doubts regarding this. We're already seeing a situation where different groups within a single culture, the young and the old, use many common emoji in ways that differ dramatically (at least in the west), sometimes even with opposing meanings. If the meanings of emoji aren't stable even within a single culture, how could they ever hope to transcend culture?

[dmvdoug]

Oh god this. I get emails from students with emoji and I very frequently have to ask them, “How are you using this one?”

Of course, the fascinating thing is that different groups of kids use the same emoji slightly differently. So.

[inhumantsar]

The same way we manage words with multiple meanings or different words which sound the same: context and history