EOTO-EMOTICONS :-)

EOTO-EMOTICONS :-)

One of my favorite ways to end a text message is :) 
Emoticons are one of the best ways to express an emotion quickly. Whether I’m sending my mom a quick heart to let her know that I love her, sending a laughing face to my sister to let her know that something funny happened, or sending a simple :D to express that I’m incredibly happy, they have changed communication forever. 
(Here is a personal favorite emoji of mine, the duck!)



Brief History:

According to Mashable, the first use of an emoticon in print was in 1648. Robert Herrick wrote a poem. He used a simple smiley face. Early on emoticons were even presidential! Abraham Lincoln used the winky face emotion in a speech once! The first instance of emoticons being used entirely on purpose in print was in 1881. Puck magazine called them typographical art! The first online use of the :-) and :-( face emoticons were in 1982 by a college student. The name “emoticon" was recognized in 1990 by the New York Times, then in 2001 by the Oxford dictionary.In the 1990s in Japan people would send a heart emoticon through pagers. Shigetaka Kurita wanted to revolutionize this and began to create emoticons and emojis that could be sent. He created 176 emojis. He used symbols rather than faces. Companies began to create their emojis, too. They were very simple and typically only in black and white. Apple began to add emojis to their iPhones in 2011. This is when people began to see the wonder of the imagery. Google also petitioned to get emojis recognized by the Unicode consortium. This created a system of standardization of emojis. The 625 new emojis recognized by Unicode allowed Apple to take emojis mainstream. They became incredibly popular. 

The Japanese had inspired this new branch of emoticons called emojis. 3 billion people use emojis daily because of their innovation. According to Helen Fisher, 39% of communication is through technology. Technology is made up of screens and is characterized with a more disconnected feeling. This is where emojis come in.
While the history of the emoji is incredibly interesting I think that the application of emojis is even more interesting. Nearly every person I know has a “go-to emoji “that they use. Some of my friends use certain :-) emojis while other friends use different ones. Some of my friends use the red heart, some of them use the white heart. No one is the same and neither are their emoji choices. Emojis allow us to express ourselves in a new way. I think that they are one of the best recent inventions. They allow for fun communication and so much can be done with them. 
Emojis have expanded the method of communication that people use every single day, to the point of new inventions. Snapchat introduce the “fit emoji “as a spin off of the emoji, one that can be personalized to fit what a person looks like. When the invention of the bit emoji came out I was one of the first people to make my bit Moji and showcase it proudly on my social media. I thought it was so interesting that something could be customized to fit my exact look. After this, Apple made them emoji. The Memoji is a take on the bit emoji, but the Apple version. It allows people to send video messages or funny character images of certain emoji‘s, and even allows them to personalize want to look like themselves. This allowed people to not only be able to send a giraffe emoji, but to be able to send a giraffe talking video where they’re laughing. This is allowed for more more widespread use of emoji‘s across even older people, like my parents. It allowed for further personalization, somethings that emojis are constantly bringing forth.  

Emojis have had a huge cultural impact. Artists are using emojis to create large art installations like this one here: 

Further, most millennials and Gen Z members can remember the time in 2013 to 2015 where emoji‘s were found present on everything. My friends and I had emoji stickers, other people had blankets, pajamas, and more. The cultural impact that emojis hold is huge. They are more than just a silly pixelated image, give me people laugh and smile and translate emotions that are otherwise difficult to be translated online.
As mentioned earlier, phone cases, stickers, backpacks, and blankets have sold out, hopping on the trend of using emojis. I even used to cover my phone case in emoji stickers. Emojis have created an enormous cultural wave that continues to evolve. Every 3 to 4 years Apple releases another 100 to 300 emoji ‘s. I always sit and wait at my computer the day that they are released so I can look through each of them. I think that they create an experience for iPhone users that is unmatched. I always look forward to new emojis because it allows me to share more with those around me.

As far as up-and-coming emojis, people can look forward to a troll, a slide, a tire, and x-ray, bubbles, handshakes, a salute, a Birds nest, and more. Well these all seem like emoji‘s that would not be particularly useful of the day today, I’m sure that many millions of people will enjoy them and it will become their most used and favorite emoji. I am most looking forward to the bubbles emoji or the melting smile emoji because I think that the bubbles conveys something fun and idyllic while the melting smile is hilarious!

Recently, emojis have gotten a bad reputation. They are seen as childish and useless by a lot of people. I wholly disagree with this sentiment. I think that emojis are fun. They allow emotion to be brought back into a virtual world that can otherwise feel very cold and isolating. While emojis are not professional, and I would not use them in a professional sense, they are still great assets to communication. 

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Sources:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtWabXhR0YU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIFSD1mZwEo