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Human emojis

Emojis have taken human form and they’re reacting to your news but is this the best way of communicating?

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You’ll need

  • Open space to move around

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

  • In this game everyone will have the chance to think about how they interact with others online and whether quantity is better than quality.
  • This game is a great introduction to start thinking about how we interact online. If you’re working towards Stage 2 of the Digital Citizen Activity Badge pair this with a game of Party quirks to meet requirement 4.
  • Make sure everyone knows where they can go for support if they or someone they know needs it. We’ve included some information below.
  • If you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card.

Discover your favourite emojis

  1. The person leading the activity should ask everyone if they have a favourite emoji that they use a lot on messaging and social media platforms. Make sure the emojis are human reactions such as a smiley, sad, crying, shrug, scream, laughing, crying with laughter, heart, thumbs up, angry, broken heart.
  2. Ask why people use emojis rather than comments or replies. This may be because we don’t want to type lots of words or because  it’s faster and we want to respond to as many people as possible. It could help with language barriers or people might find it easier than reading a long comment.
  3. Tell the group that the emojis have escaped and now humans can be emojis in real life too. Practise being human emojis as a group. Most emoji reactions are just facial expressions but you  can make a heart shape with your hands or do a shrug etc. Enjoy making the reactions really big and exaggerated.

Play the game

  1. Everyone should think of one line of news that they can tell other people. The news can be real, like: ‘I was late for school this morning’, or something made up, for example: ‘a dragon ate my homework’ or 'today I took the train from London to Edinburgh’.
  2. The person leading the activity should divide everyone into Team One and Team Two.
  3. Team One should stand or walk around the meeting space. When they’re approached by someone from Team Two they should immediately tell them their ‘news’.
  4. Players in Team Two approach different people and hear their news and react immediately by being a human emoji. This reaction should be quick and then the player should then move on to hear someone else’s news. For example, player one says that they couldn’t find their scarf and player two makes a sad face or a scream or whatever reaction they think of first.
  5. Team Two players move on until they’ve heard most or all of the news from Team One. At some points in the game, there may be several people listening and reacting to news and that’s fine. The game should be loud and chaotic!
  6. Teams should swap so that everyone gets a chance to deliver their news and react as human emojis.

Our faces show how we feel — but sometimes we need to ask twice to really know how someone is doing.

It's good to talk!

  1. Everyone should play the game again but this time they’re allowed to talk, ask questions and react using words or other ways of communicating. For example, ‘a dragon ate my homework.’ ‘That’s terrible, did you get in trouble? Dragons are such a nuisance, aren’t they? I hope your teacher understood.’
  2. If they have a positive or negative reaction, explore why that is and what effect their reaction might have on someone. Explain that people can practice asking twice if they think someone may not really feel the way they say they do. People could share what signs made them think it was especially important to ask twice?
  3. The game will be naturally slower and may be quieter this time.
  1. Always listen closely. Especially when someone’s speaking about their mental health, try your best to focus on what they’re saying without getting distracted. There are lots of ways to show someone that you’re listening including facing them, making eye contact, and trying not to fidget. Not all of these things work for everyone (for example, some autistic people find it difficult to maintain eye contact), so find what works for you.
  2. Show interest. Once someone’s started talking to you, ask them questions about what they were saying to show you were listening and find out more about what they mean. If you feel able to, you could share some suggestions of things that have helped you if you’ve been in a similar situation – remember you’re talking about the other person though, so try not to talk for too long about yourself and don’t feel like you have to offer solutions.
  3. Be positive about the future. Sometimes, when people are feeling really low, it’s hard to imagine things getting better. Try to remind them that the future will get better and that there are people that they can turn to for support, including support services and charities (we’ve included some details below).
  4. Show you’re on their side. Try to make the person feel as comfortable as you can and don’t judge what they say. You don’t have to try to solve what they’re telling you: just being there to listen will make a huge difference.
  5. Get back in touch if you can. If you feel comfortable, get back in touch and see how the person’s getting on. Are things any better? Could you signpost them to any sources of support?

What to do in an emergency

In a medical emergency, always call 999. Speak calmly and clearly and give the operator as much detail as you can. You can ask a trusted adult to help you do this.

What to do if someone tells you something that makes you uncomfortable

  • If someone tells you something that makes you worried, for example, that they’ve been thinking about hurting themselves or someone else, it’s important not to deal with it on your own.
  • If someone tells you something worrying at Scouts, you should always tell the person in charge.
  • You should always tell a trusted adult (like a parent or teacher) as soon as you can. Try to give them as much detail as you can remember.
  • If someone tells you something and asks you to keep it a secret, you may not want to break their trust, or you may worry that they could fall out with you if you tell someone.
  • But if you don't feel comfortable with what they’ve told you, or you think they (or someone else) could be in danger, it’s important to tell a trusted adult what they’ve said.
  • You could tell them that you need to tell a trusted adult because you can’t deal with this yourself or you’re worried about them, but ask if there’s someone they’d prefer you to talk to.
  • It may feel like you’re breaking their trust, but telling a trusted adult will keep everyone safe.

Where to go for further support

For everyone:

  • Samaritans: call 116 123 or email [email protected]
  • Shout: text SHOUT to 85258
  • Contact your GP: your GP can provide help, but there might be a longer wait.
  • Contact NHS 111 (known as NHS 24 in Scotland): 111 is available 24/7 for urgent medical care.

If you’re under 19:

  • Young Minds: text ‘YM’ to 85258.
  • Childline: call 0800 1111 or visit their website for information or to chat to a counsellor.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland:

For adult volunteers:

  • If you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare (including their online experiences), follow the Yellow Card.

Reflection

This activity encouraged everyone to think about the quality and quantity of their online interactions. The person leading the game should ask everyone what sort of emoji reactions they got in the first part of the game and how it made them feel. If they got lots of reactions perhaps it made them feel special or overwhelmed. Perhaps they got reactions they weren’t expecting. Ask the players what it was like only being able to use emojis. You can hear and react to a lot of news, but you only ever hear the ‘headline’ and not the background or the details.

Ask the group to reflect on the way they interact online. Time is short and you may have lots of friends, so you want to make sure you don’t miss anyone out or upset anyone by ignoring their messages and posts. How did it feel when someone slowed down and took their time to interact with you? Interactions aren’t all about the number of likes or reactions but are sometimes about the personal touch. We all need to remember the human part of the human emoji game. Remind everyone to remember to be respectful in their online interactions and to report any bullying. Ask the group to try this week to make a genuine comment for every emoji reaction they make online. And remember this can happen in person too. You can make a positive impact in someone's day by taking the time to slow down and interact intentionally with them. 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

Unbalance the teams so that game becomes even faster, for example, have only a few people in the news group so that they receive several human emoji reactions at once. The person leading the game can also give a set amount of time for everyone to hear and react to every piece of news, so they have to move quickly.

The game could be overwhelming for some so make sure that there’s a time-out option for anyone who needs to step away for a moment.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Digital Citizen Stage 2

Instead of giving a line of news, use the game to explore a range of different viewpoints on a topic such as favourite foods or camp activities.

To further explore how active listening and intentional conversation can have a positive impact, check out 'How are you?' times two

More experienced players could act out an example at the start of the game. Maybe they could act out some human emojis for everyone to guess to get everyone started.