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The seahorse emoji is seemingly everywhere, but it never really existed.
KI-generiert
Many people believe that there used to be a seahorse emoji. But this emoji never officially existed. blue News explains where this false memory comes from - and what the topic has to do with politics.
A curious discussion has been raging on Instagram, TikTok and Reddit for months. It's about an emoji that supposedly never existed - the seahorse. However, numerous internet users are firmly convinced that there used to be one. Yellow or pink, for sure. Many even claim to have used it themselves.
The online discussions are surprisingly specific. On Reddit, someone describes the seahorse as having looked "to the left". Other users provide supposed "evidence" in the form of screenshots in which the little animal appears in an emoji menu.
Videos are circulating on TikTok in which viewers are asked in an almost conspiracy-theory tone: "Do you remember the seahorse emoji?"
A seahorse emoji is shown in the fourth column and third row.
Screenshot/Reddit
One particularly persistent user even contacted Apple directly and wrote in the forum: "Where is the seahorse emoji on the iPhone? Please take this request seriously." But as much as people want to remember: This emoji never existed. At least not officially.
What many people don't know: Emojis are now part of a global technical standard. Since 2010, this so-called Unicode standard has defined which symbols should be supported by devices such as iPhones or Android smartphones. The aim is for messages to be displayed in the same way everywhere - regardless of the manufacturer.
However, there has never been a seahorse emoji in this Unicode standard. What is not listed there does not officially exist.
However, before Unicode became established, there was a time when manufacturers, websites and chat programs designed their own symbols.
Seahorse emojis appeared from time to time in programs such as MSN Messenger or Skype. Creative emoji collections were also offered on private websites at the time - similar to Slack today. It is therefore conceivable that certain people remember such symbols - but they were never official emojis.
But why are so many people convinced that the seahorse emoji existed? Experts refer to such cases as the "Mandela effect".
This is a collective memory of things that never actually happened. The phenomenon is named after Nelson Mandela, who many people mistakenly believed died in prison in the 1980s - he actually lived until 2013.
Such false memories often arise unconsciously. When people talk about supposed memories in a group, a dynamic often arises: statements made by others influence how we remember ourselves. The more often a story is told, the more real it seems. The brain adjusts for missing details and creates a seemingly clear memory. Experts call this memory falsification.
A particularly effective trigger is suggestion. If someone asks: "Do you remember the seahorse emoji?", this is not a neutral sentence. It assumes that the emoji exists. The brain begins to search for confirmation. Those who are insecure often join the group because it feels safer.
Especially in social networks, where shared opinions are quickly visible, this easily creates a pull of collective false memories.
This principle is not only visible on the internet. Suggestion also plays an important role in politics. Deliberately chosen terms are used to influence how people think about an issue.
If a tax increase is described as a "solidarity contribution", it sounds positive. If opponents talk about a "burden on the middle class", it has a negative effect. Both terms frame the same topic differently.
The more often such terms and images are repeated, the more they become ingrained in the collective memory. Much like the seahorse emoji: at some point, it just sounds "logical", even though the original claim was never tested.
