They say a picture paints a thousand words, ever wonder how many can a single emoji tell? We’ve seen these cute tiny graphics being used to express emotions on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In this article, let’s delve into how these emojis have evolved over time, how to use them, and how they affect the way we communicate.
Let’s start off with why it’s become so important in our lives. Not only does it make communicating with friends and loved ones much more fun; but it also gives us a chance to convey our thoughts and feelings.
Gone are the days where you just send limited texts, now you can do so by just sending a simple emoji that would convey a thought that you’d like to express. Imagine the hassle of sending text messages way back compared to now where a simple emoji or two would suffice?
Table of Contents
How Emojis Started Out
Before the digital phones evolved from keypads to touch screen keyboards, people were used to using emoticons. At that time, various characters, including the fire emoji were used in chat rooms in the 1990s up to the early 2000s.
These characters from graphics which believed to be the first language ever to be born of the digital world. The first emoji was created in 1999 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita. He worked with a team to create an internet platform for a Japanese mobile carrier known as DOCOMO.
Shigetaka Kurita created an exciting and non-complex way of conveying information to users, such as telling the weather forecast. So instead of typing the actual word, users needed only to use a cute icon to describe the weather.
How To Say It With Emojis
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past twenty years, or have slept through an entire evolution of the digital age, here are simple ways to use an emoji. Reasons to use these cute little images may vary from expressing anger, happiness, or just basically describing the weather to your friends and family.
Words have a way of misleading your audience, so emojis might be of little help to express your feelings better. First, you must open an app you use to connect and communicate with family and friends like Facebook.
Open the “Make Post” box. Click the “What’s on your mind?” text box near the top of the News Feed page. The next step is to click the “Emoji” icon. It’s a smiley face-shaped icon in the lower-right corner of the text box. Go crazy and Click one or more emojis to type them into the post’s text box, and lastly, hit post. It’s that simple!
How Emojis Affect The Way, We Communicate
Emojis introduce a form of body language into what otherwise would be a dull expression of words. In most cases, these tiny images have a way of effecting thoughts across language and cultural barriers. In November 2008, iPhone released The very first version of Apple Color Emoji alongside iPhone OS 2.2.
It had a whopping 471 emoji’s available for use, which at first was limited to Japanese iPhone models. The restriction was lifted later on and became available worldwide. Communication in the smartphone era had been altered in so many ways by the use of emojis.
These tiny images make a great difference to soften the tone or add emphasis to a message you wish to convey. Emojis have become a part of everyday communication. The use of emojis might elicit different reactions from people from all walks of life.
Takeaway
Emojis are extensively used on social media such as Twitter, where people communicate informally. They may have impacted the way we communicate, but emojis may not necessarily have adversely affected language.
These tiny images may be useful in adding ideas rather than replacing words for a more effective way of communicating. So I guess it’s safe to say that if you are at a loss for words, say it with an emoji.
