Where would the world be without Emoji’s?
I would think it’d be a very 🙁 place.
How would people share their emotions in texts and emails?
How would they communicate their joy, their disdain, their anger, their pain? How would they demonstrate whether they’re feeling cool or ill? How would they express their love without a little red (or pink, or blue) heart?
Before the Emoji
Since the dawn of the computer age, people have been trying to find ways to express their feelings through text. Where words fail – because of their lack of nonverbal cues – these little images provide additional clues about a writer’s intentions.
Before the Emoji – the adorable little images that we’ve come to use and love – was the Emoticon. The Emoticon – an icon meant to express emotion – is made-up letters, numbers, and symbols that display a feeling.
Popular Emoticons include:
- <3 – The Heart Symbol
- : ) – The Smiley Face
- : ( – The Frowny Face
- ; ) – The Winky Face
Where We are Now
The emotive icons of today are far more visual than their symbolic brethren. You can evoke them by typing an emoticon key sequence or by selecting from a list of images. Sometimes you can download extra icon packs, expanding one’s emotional texting capabilities in nearly infinite capacity.
This is why we celebrate the Emoji. It has changed the way we communicate through texting and type, it helps us to know whether our loved ones are 🙂 or 🙁 .