Smiley Face, Frowny World

The emotional cost of a digital life

I must admit: I still have no idea what half the emojis on my phone really mean.

Until recently, I didn’t even know heart emojis came in different colours, let alone that each colour had a hidden meaning. Apparently, there’s a whole code to it. Who knew?

I didn’t know that there was an emoji for kidney beans; or that if you used it to suggest what you had for lunch or dinner, you were totally not in the now.

Then there are the red and blue pill emojis - yes, they exist - and no, they have nothing to do with a pharmacy refill. Took me a minute to swallow that.

I am now beginning to wonder whether the simple smiley face emoji that I have been using pretty much as a punctuation mark in almost all my messages in chats might have a completely different meaning.

But then again, these days, not everything is what it seems.

Once upon a time, we had friends. Now, we have followers. And if you have followers, you’re automatically a leader, right? Never mind that some people with millions of followers might still struggle to find their way out of a telephone booth.

In this digital world, the number of likes and follows has somehow become the new yardstick to measure self-worth and importance, even social status. The more you have of both - followers and likes - the higher your perceived self worth.

Tech gurus will argue that we’re more connected now than ever before. But are we really? Or are we slowly losing touch with everyone and everything… except our phones?

A hug has been replaced by an emoji. A phone call to wish someone a happy birthday now comes pre-packaged as a “HBD” on WhatsApp. Convenient, yes. Personal?

That digital thread we thought would bring us closer is, ironically, what’s fraying the very fabric of our real-world relationships.

“[My son] was in his room. I thought he was safe,” says the protagonist's father in Adolescence, the hugely popular Netflix series.

What he didn’t realise is sometimes, the most dangerous place to be is alone - with a smartphone.