Over the last two years, we’ve seen how deeply interconnected we are. Our health, our society, everything we hold dear is part of a great web of human connectivity. From the response to pandemic to the war in Ukraine, we’ve seen how we can galvanize our social circles to provided critical support.

But if emoji help for the backbone of how we communicate and express ourselves (one in five tweets includes an Emoji, just scroll down your Venmo feed and see how information is conveyed), a key element in this missing. There are Emoji for showing connection, transference of money and loving- support, but no one image which expresses the unique combination of these attributes.

Introducing:

The Giving Emoji

The Giving Emoji is a universal call to action. Not connected to any movement or cause, it’s an expression of our interconnectedness and the universal call to do acts of goodness and kindness.

There is an important lesson to be learned in its design:

The giving emoji underscores our shared human destiny. Only through mutual reciprocity of human compassion and giving — and teaching that action as a core value we share — can we harness the Internet for its true positive purpose.

The design purposely uses a coin — instead of a heart or some other way of depicting and exchange of kindness.

This is for two reasons:

While giving can take all forms — volunteering, helping others, getting the word out — the simple act of giving even a small amount to others has transformative power. It embodies the literal sharing of one person’s labor and life’s energy with another. And it’s something we all can do. Even if it’s just a few coins, the act of giving on a routine basis helps us acknowledge the blessings that we are privileged to have in our lives, with the understanding that there is always someone who needs more.

As well, from a design perspective, we wanted an emoji that could be viewed equally from top to bottom, and from bottom to top — one that wouldn’t vaunt one partner in the exchange over the other.

True giving is not merely an act of charity, which embeds the idea of givers and receivers. Rather it’s an act of righteousness, part of a broader understanding that the giver is not doing the receiver a favor — but rather closing a loop of interconnected goodness. The one who receives is in fact a giver as well, allowing the person giving the agency to do good in this world. Two partners in kindness.

This message of mutual reciprocity is expressed in the design. The hand on top is the same as that on the bottom. Neither hand is truly in the position of giving or taking, but rather in a cycle of mutual goodness. Rotate the the emoji, and it becomes clear that the one giving is very much also on the receiving end of the relationship.

In use that it means the person giving or asking for help can use the same emoji — each one acknowledges that that they’re taking part in a cyclical act of perpetuating goodness.

There is an important lesson to be learned in its design:

The design purposely uses a coin — instead of a heart or some other way of depicting and exchange of kindness.

This is for two reasons:

While giving can take all forms — volunteering, helping others, getting the word out — the simple act of giving even a small amount to others has transformative power. It embodies the literal sharing of one person’s labor and life’s energy with another. And it’s something we all can do. Even if it’s just a few coins, the act of giving on a routine basis helps us acknowledge the blessings that we are privileged to have in our lives, with the understanding that there is always someone who needs more.

As well, from a design perspective, we wanted an emoji that could be viewed equally from top to bottom, and from bottom to top — one that wouldn’t vaunt one partner in the exchange over the other.

We wanted to depict an an act of righteousness, part of a broader understanding that the giver is not doing the receiver a favor — but rather closing a loop of interconnected goodness. The one who receives is in fact a giver as well, allowing the person giving the agency to do good in this world. Two partners in kindness.

Written by Mordechai Lightstone
Rabbi. Social Media @Chabad. Founder @myTechTribe. TED Resident. Fueled by coffee & craft beer. Views mine, not employer’s. Kosher Hot Takes Served Daily.