Of all the languages in the world, there is one which is universal and can be understood anywhere on the planet: The language of the emoji.
There was a time when they were the latest novelty. But with the passage of time they have become just another way of communicating.
The first emojis were faces with punctuation signs, which expressed the emotions in our messages in a way that was visual and pleasant. The first emoticon that existed was the famous heart ❤. It was the Japanese engineer Shigetaka Kurita who, while working on his I-Mode platform project (designed to share news and the weather), realized that he needed images to represent the climate. So he went to work and established 176 images inspired by Japanese manga (Japanese comic book drawings). ☀??
From there, they advanced very rapidly and began showing up in existing applications, such as Messenger. Messenger let us talk with our friends using the computer, with long descriptions about our state of being which were full of little faces and drawings.
As technology advanced, these images also evolved. They became integrated into the keyboards on our mobile phones and became an indispensable communication tool. So much so that company brands ended up incorporating them into their marketing strategies, social media and ad campaigns, in every imaginable way possible??.
In addition, they have become such a part of our lives that all kinds of products have been created using these images: clothing, dolls, and prints with emoticons fill stores everywhere. But there’s more: these little figures now even have their own movie.
With the passage of time, the emoticons continued to evolve, adapting to our society and providing an example of integration and equality.
We began with cartoon faces and today we can share any kind of symbol which represents a significant moment in our lives. From a cartoon figure to the most hated moments, from hearts for lovers or even figures of workers in different industries.
These are just a few examples of the many images which decorate our daily life. There are so many in fact that now that there are definitely some which we haven’t even used yet. It might not be a bad idea, as a goal, to try to use all the emojis in record time, to see who can do this. ???
