One day, sitting drinking tea with an old man who is an age-old friend, he told that story. He laughed and said: "In the old days, people hid money under their pillows. Now people hide their feelings behind emoticons". He asked: "Why do you say that?" He took a sip of tea and slowly said: "A smile is not necessarily happy. A heart is not necessarily love. A thumb is often just polite.
I think it's true. It seems that people have never had as many ways to express emotions as now, but it has never been difficult to know what the person opposite is thinking. With just a few touches, people can send a smiley face, a bouquet of flowers, a round of applause or a red heart. Everything is very fast, very beautiful and very concise. The only thing is, real emotions are often outside the screen. I once saw a man regularly posting very bright smiley photos on weekends. It's only when you meet him in real life that you know you just went through a divorce. It turns out that emoticons are sometimes like umbrellas. People cover them not because it's raining, but to prevent others from seeing you wet.
In the past, if you wanted to know if someone was sad or happy, you just needed to look into their eyes. If you wanted to know who missed you, you just needed to hear their voice. Now, people look at the words "has seen", count the minutes of not replying to messages, measure emotions by the number of hearts and speculate moods through a few tiny symbols. Some people spend the whole evening just analyzing whether these symbols mean joy or embarrassment. It is worth mentioning that emotion symbols are increasing, while real conversations are becoming less and less frequent. It is easier to send a hundred hearts than saying "I miss you". It is easier to send condolences with a crying face symbol than to sit next to someone when they need a shoulder. The old man said to him: "Emotion symbols are like spices. There are more beautiful dishes, but they cannot replace meals". He found that sentence too good. Indeed, no one lives on dipping sauce. No one can love each other just with symbols.
When saying goodbye, the old man patted his shoulder lightly and laughed: "Whenever I'm free, I drink tea". That shoulder pat was a real emotion. And perhaps, in an era full of emotional symbols, what people need most are still emotions that do not need symbols to express.
