'Emojis enhance human interactions' argues Royal Institution lecturer

Exclusive: Prof Sophie Scott will give the 2017 Royal Institution Christmas lectures on the evolution of language - and explain why gifs and emojis aren't stupid

Emojis enhance human interaction by putting "emotional, non-verbal information back in", argues Prof Sophie Scott, who has been named as the 2017 Royal Institution Christmas lecturer.

Rather than marking a dismal low-point for communication, Scott believes that social media is allowing us to become increasingly sophisticated in our use of some of the most potent, but least studied, aspects of communication.