Is it just me? Or do you loathe emojis, too? asks MARION McGILVARY 

Smiley? Thumbs up? Or Sad Face? Sorry, I was just wondering how you were, and judging by my recent interactions with family and friends, the best I can hope for in reply is a stupid symbol, swiped off in a trice.

Emojis. I loathe them. And I surely can’t be alone. They have to be the laziest form of communication ever, not to mention the most dismissive, and frankly crude.

Have we spent centuries evolving from symbolic cave paintings and the use of hieroglyphics to rich languages to express our deepest feelings, concepts and ideas, only to end up using a stupid character?

Think of a love letter. Is a heart emoji really an adequate substitute?

Literature, history, science, the pen, the printing press, and now computers, phones, emails, and texts, then what do we use? A cartoon face to convey our feelings.

Never have we been more in touch and said less. It drives me into a fuming rage when I’ve taken the trouble to send a newsy email to a friend and get a ruddy thumbs up in return. Gee. Talk about a brush off.

Particularly annoying is when you send an instant message to let someone know you’re upset, when your boyfriend dumps you, or you’ve lost your job, and you get back a crying cat. A cat for goodness’ sake. Not even a crying human.

Worse still is to tell someone you have had a loss and receive, in return, a picture of a pair of hands clasped in prayer. Gee, thanks for your sympathy.

Let’s remember that we have a proper language. You need actual words sometimes. If the phone runs out of battery what will we be left with? Mime or interpretive dance. Save me from that, please.