Sega’s emojam wants to keep messages short and sweet, plus within your circle of close friends.

It’s not an uncommon opinion that modern communication technology, and social media in particular, is a double-edged sword. The ease and speed with which messages can be sent to anyone in the world allows people to form and maintain connections they would have been unable to otherwise, but it can also lower the social barriers that insulate us from people we’d rather not be connected to, subjecting us to harassing messages that are unpleasant or even traumatic.

So while you probably won’t find too many people saying it’s time to go all the way back to handwritten letters and landline phone calls as our only non-face-to-face options, a lot of people are likely longing for some sort of happy medium in terms of technology for interpersonal communication, and Sega thinks it has the answer: bring back pagers, but with some fun new twists.

Pictured above is the emojam, a new creation from Sega’s Sega Fave division. Like the pagers of yore, emojam doesn’t allow for text entry, and there’s a pretty tight cap on how long messages can be. Instead of sending a series of numbers, though, emojam lets you send a string of emoji.

The device comes with over 1,100 pre-loaded emoji, and you can send up to 10 per message. The intent, Sega says, is to encourage users to put extra thought and care into crafting and deciphering messages, helping to strengthen bonds between friends as a result of considering how each other’s perspective and emotions influences their interpretation of the pictures.

▼ In this example image, the top message is “I’ve got a crush on that boy,” apparently someone who’s on the soccer team, and the friend’s excited reaction is “Wow! Really?” The text has been added for demonstration purposes – the actual devices would display only the emoji.

Though emojam sends messages through Wi-Fi networks, it’s not a conventionally Internet connectable device. Group chats are limited to five users, and the friend list, required to send and receive messages, tops out at 100 people, big enough for just about anyone’s primary social circle, but small enough to leave out less vetted individuals who exchanging messages with might do more harm than good to your mental health. Along the same lines, registering friends requires physically touching your emojams to each other, eliminating the anonymity of conventional social media that often enable online harassment. Before someone can exchange emojam messages with you, they have to be someone you’ve met in real life, which would hopefully mean more civil and accountable communication than with a total stranger.

▼ There are also emojam accessories like cases and straps, and the emoji library can be expanded with additional sets featuring characters like the Sanrio crew.

As you can probably tell from the promotional images, Sega is marketing the emojam towards kids, with many of the limits on what kind of messages can be sent and who they can be sent to put in place to put parents’ minds at ease. For any adults who grew up in an era with a less intensely connected communications culture than we have now, though, there’s likely a nostalgic appeal to the concept too, though.

emojam goes on sale December 10 with a suggested retail price of 7,150 yen (US$48), and an Amazon Japan preorder page is already up here.

Source: PR Times via IT Media, emojam official website, Amazon Japan
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: Amazon Japan, emogam official website
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