In the year 2015, receiving a software update for one’s iPhone is like an early birthday present. Testing out all the cool new features and playing around with a new layout can fascinate people for days, maybe even weeks. Updates are usually extensively talked about online and in most media outlets. However, adding a new batch of emojis to the mix causes the excitement to rise to much greater heights, especially with the recent release of the middle-finger emoji.

An emoji is a small digital icon usually used to represent an emotion or feeling, and since the first set of emojis were released in the beginning of the 21 century, they’ve grown in all aspects of their use, their design, and their… vulgarity?

Of course, the new middle-finger emoji excites many people by providing a more creative outlet to express a certain emotion, but it also brings in some more questionable aspects. When crude symbols conveying obscene language are so easily put into everyday social interactions, it brings upon the decline of a society.

Emojis are used everyday around the world, especially in America by people of all ages. Infact, most children’s first phones are now smart-phones. Having these coarse signs so easily available for use is offensive and really a demeaning blow to society.

This isn’t to say that Apple or any specific person is at fault for making the degrading symbol. I was fortunate enough, through Twitter, to get in touch with “the father of the emoji,” Shigetaka Kurita. (Kurita does not speak English so I am only able to give an overview of our conversation as he could not be quoted in his original verbatim.)  Kurita explained that what the users convey they want, is taken into consideration when choosing what emojis to design. Kurita was not entirely involved with the creation of the middle-finger emoji but did say that it was adopted in the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit corporation devoted to developing software.

So it is very possible that the release of the middle-finger emoji stems widely from the wants of everyday people, showing a prime example of the decline of the ethics in society. In a world that so desperately needs to begin to start spreading kindness around, one cannot fathom why people are making it so much easier to spread hate.