Italian scientists discovered that animal emojis on social networks distort users’ perceptions of the diversity of nature. transmits project “Snob” based on the results of the study. As the authors of a paper published in the journal iScience told the publication, too many terms are used in online communication to refer to mammals and too little to refer to insects, plants, fungi and microorganisms.
In particular, scientists identified 112 organisms with their own emojis on social networks; 92 of them are animals and only 16 are plants. Only one image shows fungi and microorganisms.
“Good representation of the tree of life on social media will make it much easier to spread the message that biodiversity is much more than cats, dogs, lions and pandas,” said Francesco Fichetola, co-author of the Gentile study.
He said adding 20-30 more emojis would help balance users’ perception of biodiversity.
In the autumn, in the press service of the Unisender email newsletter service reported “socialbites.ca”, the flame-shaped emoji is mostly seen in emails sent by Russian companies. The relevant conclusion was reached after examining more than 3 billion items. The lightning image took second place. The third one has a gift-shaped emoji.
Previously a court in Russia accepted An emoji is the equivalent of a signature at the bottom of a document.