by: Advika Anand and Quinn Hathaway

Graphics Editor and Media Editor

Have you ever been texting with a friend and found that neither words nor emojis can express the flow of emotion you’re feeling? Rhetorical question –- everyone has felt this way at least once. Sometimes, a person cannot relay pure ecstasy to its full extent by sending a smiley face emoji or a “YAY!!!”. However, a sticker can fix this issue. That’s right; creating a sticker from your favorite photo is the solution to all your problems with conveying emotion over text. Any one person’s camera roll can generate an infinite number of expressions. The possibilities are endless.

Everyone has favorite phrases, but we have favorite stickers. The easiest way to procure a blackmail-level photo is through Facetime, either yawning, sleeping, mid-talking, or other compromising situations. Then all you have to do is extract the sticker from the photo, and you have an embarrassing snapshot into your victim’s homelife, condensed into a grimacing face on your keyboard.

Another typical victim susceptible to stickering is slightly older and infinitely more funny. A niche childhood photo, sent months ago during an all nighter, resurfaces in sticker form when the conversation gets dry. Maybe it was you frowning at the camera at only eleven months old, or perhaps you were a chubby toddler splashing a baby pool. Regardless, your not-so-little face will perennially haunt the group chat.

A separate yet equally amusing version of stickering is DIY emojis. These peculiar emojis are usually cheffed up on ProCreate, then distributed through Instagram Reels, thus creating a new sticker of your short-lived hyperfixation. A common target is a new meme: examples include “M-M flip it around Wicked Witch” or Labubus. An easy drawing turns into an emoji that could be mistaken as Apple-created, and all your friends are sure to be quick to add your art to their keyboard.

One final form of stickers is only for the most chronically online people out there. Most likely the user of these stickers has at least ten hours of screen time daily and of those ten hours, eight of them are on Reels and TikTok. This is the type of sticker that makes you contemplate your age that is sounding a little too serious. Yep, we are talking about the AI baby sticker. We would dare to say every high schooler has either sent or received at least one copy of the infamous meme, and making a sticker was just a little too easy. It’s okay, don’t try to hide. We see you and accept you. If it encapsulates your emotions, then the sticker community supports your choices.

At the end of the day, stickers are a form of expression. Similar to texting and calling, they are a medium of communication: more specific than a text but less than a phone call. Just right for many teenagers in desperate need to convey their feelings in a time crunch. If you are an avid stickerer, spread the art. If you are a stubborn emoji user, congratulations! You just got converted.