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Emoji Evolution
October 23, 2017 Kio Herrera

Expressive Icons Earlier this year, Apple announced the addition of hundreds of
new emoji to its lineup. The new emoji include a T. rex, a zombie, and a woman
wearing a head scarf.APPLE (9)

Do you speak emoji? If you use a smartphone, the answer is probably yes.

Emoji is a visual language capable of expressing all kinds of ideas and feelings. Are you

mad, sad, or happy? There are faces that convey those feelings. Are you hungry? Let

friends know you want to grab a bite by sending images of food, like tacos or pizza.

WHAT THEY MEAN Benjamin Franklin discovers the secret of electricity [1752].

Source: emojipedia.org. Using original Apple set.

Emoji exist for nearly every occasion. And people use them—a lot. More than 60 billion

emoji are posted on Facebook each day. One of the most popular, the “face with tears of

joy,” has been used more than 1.8 billion times (and counting) on Twitter.

Emoji is one of the fastest-growing forms of visual communication in history. The method

is modern. But communicating with symbols is part of a long tradition. A look at the past

shows that we have been connecting in this way for 5,000 years.

Step Back In Time

One of the oldest examples of visual language is Egyptian hieroglyphics. Ancient

Egyptians began using language symbols around 3250 B.C., according to John Darnell, a

professor of Egyptology at Yale University.

WHAT THEY MEAN Talkies, which are films featuring sound, debut [1927].

Source: emojipedia.org. Using original Apple set.

“They thought about future people who would wonder why they did what they did,”

Darnell told TFK.

The oldest hieroglyphs used images of daily life, like hunters and animals. Later, the

images came to represent ideas and words. Egyptians wanted to create a writing system

that would outlive them. “They thought about a remote future when their culture might

not be living anymore,” Darnell says.

In 1999, Japanese Internet company NTT Docomo removed a heart icon from its mobile

software. Unhappy customers canceled their subscriptions. So Shigetaka Kurita, a

designer for Docomo, looked for a solution. He reinstated the heart icon and designed 175

more icons. He called them emoji, the Japanese word for picture character.

WHAT THEY MEAN American astronauts first walk on the moon [1969].

Source: emojipedia.org. Using original Apple set.

Americans discovered the icons when Apple released the iPhone, in 2007. “Once [emoji]

became associated with mobile communication, it exploded,” says Paul Galloway. He is a

collection specialist at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City.

Some people argue that emoji is not a true language. But Galloway thinks it’s too early to

tell how it will evolve. He sees art as a bridge that can close gaps in communication. “In a

way, we are returning to the norm in how we are using visual components,” he says.

https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/emoji-evolution/?rl=en-840