Overwhelmed by social media? Worried about safety online? Japanese video game company Sega is bringing back pagers — with an emojis twist

TOKYO, Nov 2 — While modern communication — social media in particular — allows for ease to maintain connections, it can also cause much stress as a result of being inundated with updates and messages.

Sega thinks it has the answer — by bringing back pagers.

It won’t be your Eighties-inspired gizmo though.

Sega’s emojam doesn’t allow for text entry, and there’s a pretty tight cap on how long messages can be.

And instead of sending a series of numbers, emojam lets you send a string of emojis.

The device comes with over 1,100 pre-loaded emoji, and you can send up to 10 per message.

Sega says the goal 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.

emojam sends messages through Wi-Fi networks.

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 one’s primary social circle, but small enough to not be too overwhelming.

Registering friends requires physically touching your emojams to each other, eliminating the anonymity of conventional social media that often enable online harassment.

This means before someone can exchange emojam messages with you, they have to be someone you’ve met in real life.

The emojam is marketed towards children, with many of the limits on what kind of messages can be sent and to whom.

emojam goes on sale December 10 with a suggested retail price of 7,150 yen (RM205) and is available for pre-orders on Amazon Japan.