By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Humourlessness of those in authority and their desire to silence dissenting voices might extend their reach to ideograms and GIFs soon, said Shashi Tharoor, MP, on Saturday. He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the international seminar on the ‘Impact of Hegemonic Ideograms on Language in Social Media’ here at Government College for Women in Vazhuthacaud. “In our country, we have seen many instances where memes invited the wrath of the government. Cartoons have also displeased some. The unfortunate factor is that there are many colonial-era elements in the penal code that allow the hegemons to control such mediums as we have seen in the case of Mudassir Rana and many others. This is something we need to worry about,” said Tharoor. “Emoticons, memes, GIFs and other social media elements, in particular, have also become political tools with political parties using them to communicate with their followers on social media and users, in turn, are using this media to censure and oppose their elected representatives. Trolls would be bereft of armoury without them,” he said. “Social media is now a space of brevity. When an idea or a sentiment which requires a number of characters can be expressed with an ideogram, it helps save space. As emojis began spreading, as GIFs became more popular, people felt that they convey the message more emphatically than words. The attention span of users on social media is low and therefore whatever needs to be conveyed should be made in words that can be read in a few seconds. We are in a period when the need for ideogram is justifiable. I hardly use ideograms in my posts, but many have succumbed to the need,” he added. The event also had Kevin Balchin from Canterbury Christ University in the UK, Govt College for Women principal G Vijayalekshmi and other dignitaries in attendance. The seminar addressed concerns regarding the recent enhancement in the use of visual content on social media in various forms like emoticons, stickers, GIFs, memes and trolls.

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