How Can Emojis Help Us Solve Our Health Problems?

Today, emojis are the world’s lingua franca. 

They're a valuable tool for cross-cultural communication because they help us express emotions in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. 

And they’ve even been proven to impact our mood.

Emotion contagion — the phenomenon where one person's emotions and related behaviours influence and spread to others, creating a shared emotional experience — applies to emoji use too. 

So, how can emojis help us solve our health problems?

Well, given their benefits, emojis could enable better communication in otherwise complex areas, like healthcare — especially for vulnerable and marginalised populations with limited health literacy.

For instance, a recent study revealed that 94% of patients with limited health literacy prefer health reports with emojis.

First, though, more health-related emojis are needed. 

And, while anyone can submit a request for new emoji designs to the Unicode Standard — the industry body for communication standards across electronic devices — it’s no easy feat.

The application process is rigorous. Involving considerations such as distinctiveness, expected use levels, and cultural universality.

But hopefully, revolutionising healthcare is something the internet’s emoji arbiters can get on board with. 

It certainly gets a big ol’ thumbs-up from The Upside, anyway.