Emotion icons and new world: Sian Yates with Mason aged 3

“Can I play with Emoji on your iPad please? " enquires young Mason who had got a little bored at a recent meeting about the Playzone.

Quietly I explained that I didn't have children's games on my iPad. Looking very surprised and confused he pointed to the smiley face button on the keyboard that I was using. “There it is! " he explained rather patiently.

And indeed there it was.

A new world had opened up literally at a click of a button.

A whole series of little faces and images.....and many many of them indicating a whole range of emotions.

I thought about how I might use this new found world.

I wondered about how often we might want to find a shorthand way of communicating to people how we feel when we are not communicating with them face to face.

I pondered if this might be an interesting and useful way of people reflecting on a talk or a reading that they had just shared, for example.

A time to experiment, coming up ...next Friday I will try this out as we share the gospel reading at worship at St John's PZ.....how do we react emotionally to the reading. Then I will have a go at school assemblies.....

Thanks Mason for this new seed of information!