Instead of expressing the full spectrum of your emotions with cleverly wrought emojis developed for “typical” feelings like happiness, sadness, and rage, everyone now has the chance to give a voice to the voiceless traumas ever-so-common behind closed doors. The Swedish company BRIS works with hundreds of children everyday everyday on the phone, the internet, and snail mail (yes, it still exists!) to help guide them through domestic violence, self mutilation, drug abuse, and verbal abuse. Their mission is to destigmatize the big issues at home and give children, teens, young adults, and yes even victimized adults, the ability to communicate the unspeakable. In an era where we rely heavily on the emoji to communicate with our peers and loved ones, the new set of abused emojis open up new conversations about difficult subjects. The emojis have been newly released in the past couple of weeks.
Currently there are 15 new abuse emojis, but BRIS may expand their line of emojis in the future. The emojis include: three battered children, parents with alcohol use disorders (the CDC’s official term for alcoholism), “praise hands” with self inflicted cuts on the wrists, a child who apparently has some very dark thoughts (perhaps intended as suicidal inclinations), verbal abuse, and an icon which could loosely represent sexual abuse.
Many people struggling with substance abuse, or those who are subject to their parent’s substance use disorders, have difficulty admitting it. This of course includes the full range of other travesties happening right under our noses. Instead of typing out the entire ordeal (giving plenty of time for reconsideration and lots of back-spacing) we can just hit one button and get it out quickly. The simplicity of the emoji is not important, it’s the resulting conversation opening up new channels of communication, and hopefully the first steps to getting help.
According to CNN the new abused emoji app has been downloaded “tens of thousands of times” and it’s only been out for a couple of weeks. In Sweden the new Apple app is ranked third as the most downloaded app to date. In the States a quick search on my iPhone reveals a dialog in the reviews section of the app that’s hopeful. Several users who work as educators or with troubled kids have ventured to give the app a whirl, and largely agree abused emojis have the capability to make a difference in getting their students to open up about troubles at home. But the grass is greener in Sweden, apparently.
Most of the reviewers are complaining about the app’s request for full access on their devices. Do not fear! Many keyboard apps request full access to give users a more streamlined experience. (Although it’s true full access isn’t necessary to run the application- but it may make it a bit clunky.) So don’t be discouraged by the three star review the app has right now on Apple’s app store. Many of the low ratings aren’t attributed to a failure of the app, but are ascribed to anti-full access complainers.
Get involved with the conversation and join an organization who works with troubled kids in your local community, like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and see what doors these emojis unlock. You may be surprised how much easier it is to tap a button than it is to give voice to the dark side of things.
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The post New Drug Abuse and Self Harm Emojis Are the Third Most Downloaded iOS app in Sweden, But Why Not in America? appeared first on Harbor Village Florida.
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