For the present generation, words are fast being replaced with pictures and emojis. But of late, the cheeseburger emoji has become a topic of debate. We speak to youngsters to know what they feel about the controversy
Internet is a strange place — anything and everything can spark a debate. This time, it’s the humble cheeseburger emoji which has caused a stir. And Snap Chat has added spice to the week-long debate by introducing a dancing cheeseburger filter (bottom to top — bun, patty, cheese, tomato, patty, lettuce, bun).
It all started when Thomas Baekdal, a writer and media analyst, tweeted about the placement of cheese in Android and Apple burger emojis. “I think we need to have a discussion about how Google’s burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the meat patty, while Apple puts it on top,” Baekdal tweeted and minutes after his tweet, social media was abuzz with tweets on burger emojis and discussions about which one is most appropriate.
The heated discussion reached the Google heads making Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeting, “Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!”
Of course we all know that he was joking because on November 3, Google office in Seattle served its employees something called an Android burger which unlike other burgers, had the slice of cheese placed underneath the meat patty and atop the lower bun and looks exactly like Android’s burger emoji, which sparked a heated controversy earlier this week. The hamburger emoji, also known as the cheeseburger, was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015, according to Emojipedia — an emoji reference website. Apple, Google, and other tech companies can style Unicode’s emoji any way they want, so there’s actually a lot of burger ideograms out there.
Say cheese!
Sharing his opinion on the Google emoji burger, lawyer Sattwik Majumdar says “Of all the debates raging at the moment, I like the burger debate the most. Only a crazy person will put the cheese below the meat. The cheese has to be on top of the meat. Otherwise it will result in a soggy doughy mess.”
While Apple opts for a relatively photorealistic style, putting the lettuce underneath the patty and the tomato and cheese on top, Google’s emoji keeps the vegetable garnishes on top, and puts the cheese underneath the patty. WhatsApp includes ketchup. A little digging into Emojipedia reveals plenty of other variations in the way this emoji shows up across different platforms. However, most Twitter users feel that the cheeseburger emoji by Microsoft which has bun-lettuce-tomato-cheese-meat-bun in order, is the most realistic and appropriate.
Although netizens are suggesting correct versions of the burger by showing their order of placement of ingredients, IT professional Kamalika Ghosh feels that the way the burger emoji appears doesn’t really matter. Ghosh, who wonders if the entire debate will push any of the tech giants to venture into burger business, says, “I like the burger emoji of the company that will give me one month free subscription of burgers that I can actually eat.”
Suhas Negi, a 20-year-old Nutrition Science student from Bengaluru, says that since the controversy was created by cheese the tech giants should remove the slice of cheese from the burger. “We are looking at living a healthy life so why not text and react in the healthiest way on social media too. Remove the cheese from the emojis and the issue will be sorted. The discussion has been stretched too far, let’s simplify and get rid of the cheese!” he exclaims.
With emojis becoming a substitute for words, youngsters cannot help but take part in this discussion. Those having knowledge of food, cooking and properties of each ingredient are offering scientific reasoning while others are simply supporting the emoji of their favourite tech company in this debate.
Hiten D’cruze, a young home chef says, “When companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc can put their brains into creating groundbreaking technology, they should invest some time before coming up with an emoji like this? The cheese should always be on top so that it melts and transcends to the immediate layer and add to the taste. Seeing the wrong emoji, kids will grow up having an absurd idea of a burger. They should have a uniform emoji to stop confusing us.”
