New Emojis Set the Tone

With+Snapchat+and+Apples+emoji+updates%2C+emojis+are+everywhere.

Photo A. Daniels

With Snapchat and Apple’s emoji updates, emojis are everywhere.

Ashlea Daniels, Staff Writer

Snapchat released a new update on April 6, that replaced the best friends list with emojis and created a sense of friendly competition to ‘snap’ as many people as possible.

“It takes my selfies to a whole new level,” Cody Chesser (’17) said.

Three days 3 days after Snapchat released their update Apple released iOS 8.3 which included multi-cultural emojis. Users can now change the standard white with black hair emojis to a range of different races.

The new emojis shades are based off the Fitzpatrick scale, which is used in dermatology. The scale only includes five colors and Apple’s choice to use this scale has angered some.

“I find them horrible, it gives races more of a stereotype. Keeping only one skin color emoji is less offensive than saying that if I’m dark skinned, I’m the color of the dark emoji. There are more variations in skin tone than five emojis,” Deborah Goncalves (’18) said. “I honestly wish I hadn’t updated my phone.”

Additional emojis were also added and include same sex parents, 32 new flags and more sports.

“I like the update,” Tapley Borucke (’18) said. “I think a lot of people are happy too because people have been requesting the creation of those emojis for a while.”