The Facebook icon I have chosen is the speech bubble, and from the Egyptian hieroglyphics, I have chosen the ‘Ankh’ symbol. 

  • What’s being communicated?

Facebook’s icons are used to navigate actions within the app, such as navigation between the news feed, notifications, messages, and profile. These icons are minimalistic and symbolic, representing common actions like a “bell” for notifications or a “speech bubble” for messaging.

In contrast, Egyptian hieroglyphics used pictures to convey ideas, words, or sounds. They were a complex writing system with both phonetic and ideographic elements, often used to document religious texts, daily activities, or official decrees.

Both systems are based on visual communication but serve very different purposes. Facebook’s icons aim to quickly guide users through actions, while Egyptian hieroglyphics communicated detailed messages about life, religion, or authority.

In order to understand Facebook icons, the viewer should be  familiar with digital metaphors, where physical objects (bells, speech bubbles) are used to represent concepts such as alerts and communication.

Similarly, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, individuals needed to understand the meaning of various pictographs. The ‘Ankh’ symbol is a teardrop-shaped hoop with a cross connected directly below it, to represent the sun making its path upward and over the horizon, and it symbolizes the many aspects of life, including physical life, eternal life, immortality, death, and reincarnation.

Both systems require users to learn associations between symbols and their meanings, but hieroglyphics were much more extensive and intricate.

  • Metaphors being used:
  1. The bubble speech icon is a metaphor for conversation, derived from the way speech is represented in cartoons or comics
  2. The ‘Ankh’ symbol represents life and external existence, symbolizing vitality.

Both use metaphors derived from physical, familiar objects, but while Facebook’s icons are designed for quick functional interaction, hieroglyphics carried deeper symbolic meanings rooted in the culture’s worldview.

While Facebook’s iconography and Egyptian hieroglyphics serve vastly different purposes, both rely on visual symbols to communicate. Facebook’s icons are streamlined and designed for quick, universal comprehension, whereas Egyptian hieroglyphics required cultural knowledge and carried profound meaning in them. Both systems use metaphors to convey their messages, but in Facebook, the metaphors are more pragmatic, reflecting the app’s focus on function and usability rather than storytelling or spiritual significance.