Where would today’s communication be without them? How could we smile without one? Or frown? How would we ever say we liked a thing or not?
Oh. I’m talking about the ever-evolving world of emojis. Don’t look now, but today is “World Emoji Day,” this July 17, 2022.
Yes, July 17th recognizes that grand little emoji for the symbolic icons that they are. The celebration day encourages us to use emojis in all of our messages.
But let’s go back to the days of the caveman. At least, where texting is concerned. Before the emoji, there were emoticons. Emoticons stood for “emotion + icon.” You remember them, don’t you?
🙂
😉
:O
🙁
It was developed as an expression of emotions in the halls of those cold hard texts that were devoid of any emotion at all.
But we have evolved.
“Emoji” is a Japanese expression that mostly means “picture word.” Shigetaka Kurita created them in 1990. He developed them for a company he worked for, called NTT DoCoMo.
I’ll never forget when I saw my first emoji. I was utterly delighted as I stood on the piazza of my house in Charleston. My friend Justin Thomas texted me to say he was on his way over. At the end of the message, he put a smiley face.
I shot back a text immediately. “How did you do that?” From there on out, he and I were emoji pals, through and through. We were bubbly with it.
Leave it to Apple to get the ball rolling. The release of the first iPhone by Apple in 2007 had an emoji keyboard embedded. It was meant for the Japanese market. It wasn’t intended for American users to find. But we did. Before long, the emoji was everywhere.
Every year we get new emojis. And guess what. Everything you ever wanted to know about the emoji can be found at emojipedia.org . They keep track of all the emoji updates — from everywhere.
There are more than 1800 emojis in existence. And, they cover much more than just emotions. There are cars and food. All sorts of animals except for the one you are looking for. We have weather emojis and even some that describe our bodily functions. If you need a smiley pile of poop, there’s one for that. Sometimes those emojis say what words can’t.
How do they say? A picture is worth a thousand words.
So with that, perhaps we should give them a try today if we don’t already. Personally, I like a good emoji from time to time. But, as with everything, moderation is key.
When we quit using the English language, either through confounded abbreviations, or emojis, or lack of fully spelled words with punctuation, we are risking a lot. We should cherish our good language, remembering to listen more than we speak.
I wonder if there is an emoji for that?
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“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.”
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
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“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
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“I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.”
― Matt Groening
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Smile. Frown. Poop. Skunk. Weightlifter. Bucket. Peanut. You name it.
