Textual Healing: How Emojis Became the Official Language of Kiki Land

What are your favorite emojis?

Daily Prompt 1921

The texts absolutely fly here in the Land of Kiki. At any given moment, there are family texts for just the four of us, separate chats between me and the kids, groups with my mom and sister, and enough sidebar conversations to qualify as their own social network.

The messages are quick, chaotic, and usually hilarious. Some days I can barely keep up—especially with the extended family and cousin group texts, where responses come faster than I can find my reading glasses. Thankfully, we’ve added the younger cousins to the mix. They keep us current on all the latest emojis, abbreviations, and internet shorthand. Please note: I often need to quietly sidebar someone for translation services.

Apparently there are entire conversations happening in symbols now, and I’m just doing my best to remain bilingual.

Jules and I, however, have taken things to the next level. We now have our own private emoji language. We discovered you can turn photos into stickers, which means ordinary texting has evolved into a highly specialized communication system made up of facial expressions, inside jokes, and random snapshots used as punctuation.

You may recall that Jules and I saw Stevie Nicks last year. After every song, she’d grow very quiet. A hush would fall over the crowd… and then she’d offer one long, dramatic, deeply heartfelt: thaaaank you.

Naturally, this became part of our vocabulary.

So now, instead of typing “thanks” or even the efficient little “TY,” we simply send the Stevie sticker. No words necessary. Just mystery, gratitude, and a touch of chiffon.

Honestly, if every family had a custom emoji dialect, world peace might be possible. Or at the very least, fewer misunderstood texts.

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Author: KikiFikar

Kiki Fikar is a native New Yorker who is passionate about taking the day to day life we all experience and sharing it in her tales from Suburbia. She will often be found at the gym, writing snippets each day for future story lines, listening to her two children create their lives, and building the perfect beachfront home and writing retreat in her mind.

30 thoughts on “Textual Healing: How Emojis Became the Official Language of Kiki Land”

  1. Ha! LOVE this! What a great idea, using stickers as a new language. Plus, it’s encrypted, the decoder ring held only by Kiki and Jules 😂

    My brother and I had our own inside jokes and sayings that got used in lieu of real words at the dinner table… they were mostly over the heads of the ‘rents, but now and then we underestimated them and got busted. A sticker of Stevie as a sincere thank you… genius! 😂😎👏

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  4. Genius! 👍 Stickers and emojis are new languages to describe our feelings and much more. They are faster than writing text, especially in instant messaging.

    My favorite emojis are: 💯😊🎉😍

    Of course, they mean different things, depending on context.

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      1. This bird has flown! 😁😎 that song lyric popped in my head as I read your comment… now I will have to play it later on my guitar when I do my daily practice.

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  6. we have a similar group in whatsapp. All in Portuguese which I understand a fraction so it is copy, paste, translation, copy, type response, translation to Portuguese, copy , paste then a nap.

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  8. A vibrant and witty exploration of the digital heartbeat, brilliantly capturing how a simple icon can translate a thousand unspoken feelings into the universal, shorthand symphony of modern connection

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  15. KikiFikar, this brought back memories—and these days, even my medications don’t always manage that!

    It was the mention of Stevie Nicks that did it. I knew little about Fleetwood Mac in the ’70s, beyond hearing their music on KOMA, the Oklahoma City rock station my brother-in-law always played. Your piece has stirred up enough memories for an entire Morning Coffee story, so I’m saving those for later.

    Here’s the one that came rushing back: When Steve and I moved to Phoenix in 2002, I made the mistake of telling him Stevie Nicks had reportedly been spotted filling her car near one of my offices. After that, he wanted a Stevie sighting report every day on my way to and from work.

    I finally told him she wore disguises. I may even have suggested she dressed like a witch. Steve did not appreciate my humor. To make it up to him, I went to three Fleetwood Mac concerts over the years. I can’t deny I enjoyed every one.

    These days, I’ve got the texting thing down, and our family reaches farther than I can keep track of. Yet the only ones I wish to keep up with are a sister, a niece, a great nephew and his newborn son, and a gaggle of cousins. The upside is that Steve and I get all the Thanksgiving leftovers. At our age, who could ask for more?

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    1. You guys my friend are on the winning end with the leftovers and fabulous family connections!

      Ok now that I know you enjoy Fleetwood Mac – I will share this with you…one of our fellow bloggers here – Tracie (Squiggle Line Cafe) mentioned a book she had read by Taylor Jenkins Reid called Daisy Jones and The Six. I had just cruised through the Amazon Firestick and saw it was a series. I dove in the next day. BOOM! It was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac around Stevie and Lindsey Buckingham. It was insane. I never call in sick to work, but I actually considered it so I could binge the entire series in one day… It was that good. My husband and kids went to a hockey game last night. I stayed home and watched the last three episodes. I was absolutely blown away!!!

      See my post on Stevie’s concert. It was mesmerizing. Brought me right back to my 70s youth.

      I need to catch up on your pieces. We are in the middle of a northeaster right now, so most of the day was running around outside preparing the backyard. Your writing is just incredible. Such a fan. ❤️

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