The History of Emoji ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The History of Emoji
Author: Kierra Shreffler
👉The Emoji👈
Emojis are more than an image on a phone screen. In today’s world, the emoji is used to express all sorts of funny, sad, sarcastic, enthusiastic, messages to one another. Emojis add spice to an individual’s text which allows the user to express their emotions more clearly. Emojis are not only for Gen Z and the teens of today, they are for everyone that is in the digital world!
Because of this, it puts pressure on designers to create digitized emotions to fit a standard for all users of all ages 👶 ——>👵. Apple and Samsung, to name a few brands, are constantly updating and renewing many emojis. With each update on our cell phones, new emojis are often added to the emoji library. There are plenty of emojis that have evolved across time to fit different cultures👳♀️, sexualities👨👨👦, and interests⛹️.
👉Where Did Emojis Come From?👈
Emojis originated in Japan in 1997! The first emoji wasn’t a digital image like todays emojis. In the 90’s individuals who would text on their cell phones would send messages with basic expressions that were tacked on at the end of their sentences.
What some of these expressions looked like:
:-) ;-) ¯_(ツ)_/¯ :3 <3 :-(
Typically, a sarcastic message would add on a winking face at the end of the message which would look like this: ;-)
The first emoji was created in 1999 by a Japanese artist named Shigetaka Kurita. Kurita invented a 12x12 pixelated base for each emoji that was created. These emojis were very basic in detail, but they were a level up from the smiley face :-). Down below is an image of the first few emojis that were made for digital phones in Japan. As you can see, these emojis were very “block-like” and displayed very little detail.
The word “emoji” or “emojis” comes from Japanese. e (“picture”) + moji (“character”) = “emoji”. Even though there is a resemblance in the English words of emotion and emoticon, it is completely coincidental.
👉Important Dates for Emoji History👈
1999
Emojis are born! The 12x12 pixelated emojis are invented and are a new source of expressive communication through text.
2010
Hundreds of more emojis are added to the emoji library across all different types of mobile users.
2015
Diverse emojis are created with 5 new shades of skin tone. This update was huge for mobile users because emojis were now able to express the color of skin.👧👧🏻👧🏼👧🏽👧🏾👧🏿
2016
New emojis including different sexuality preferences were added to the emoji keyboard.
👨👨👧👦 👨👨👦👦 👨👨👧👧 👩👩👦 👩👩👧 👩👩👧👦 👩👩👦👦
2017
New emojis are added to express information across different languages and cultures.
👉Diversity👈
Ever since 2015, when the new emojis with different skin colors came out, emoji update installments have included incremental steps and advances in becoming more diverse. This option for emojis is great because it lets everyone feel equal with the diverse selection of emojis.
Sports and hobby emojis also are added with every emoji update. Now you are able to see diversity in male and female emojis. 🏃🏼♀️ 🏃🏼
My prediction for one of the upcoming emoji updates will be a new installment of unisex emojis. This can be, but not limited to, gender fluid and transgendered people that may not have a preference in which emoji gender to use.
There are tons of flags to choose from, and they have also added the pride flag to include individuals of the LGBTQ+ community. 🏳️🌈❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤
👉Teen Lingo👈
In teen lingo, there are many combinations of different emojis that can be put together to convey a message sarcastically. Down below are a few of my favorite emojis to use together, and their meaning:
🙂
This represents a sarcastic smile, you only use this when you really want to express that you really don’t like something
Example: “just got called into work this Friday, so glad I am missing out on that party🙂🙂🙂”
👁👄👁
This set of emojis stands for when you are absolutely dumbfounded. When you witness something absolutely crazy, and you have no explanation. In this situation, it is only right to use this combination of emojis. With the mouth open, it expresses a state of shock. You oftentimes find this emoji expression in many Tik Tok videos.
🤠
This emoji is used to send a joyful and commonly sarcastic message. Teens love to use this emoji because it is oftentimes funny and very sarcastic
Example: “What’s up, I hate you 🤠”
😳🕶👌
This set of emojis is used when you aren’t sure that you saw something correctly. You would use this in a situation where you see a video of someone doing something crazy and you are in complete shock. Your emoji is taking off his sunglasses to make sure he saw what he saw correctly. When you receive shocking news from a friend, you should respond with this!
😤🤪
This emoji combination is used to sarcastically flex something. A flex is anything that makes you “cool” or gives you “clout”, but in this case, you make whatever your flexing (positive or negative) seem “cool”.
Example: “Just got a D on my math test 😤🤪…yuhhhh”
🕳🚶♀️
This is one of my favorite emoji combinations, preferably with the blind man emoji. This combination of emojis is used when you see something that wasn’t supposed to be seen. You aren’t a snitch, so you are walking right into a hole without knowing.
Example: “Nothing to see here 🕳🚶♀️”
🤩
This emoji can be used to show that you are starstruck, but for teens, this is not the case. Oftentimes when you see this emoji, it represents a sarcastic version of the heart eye emoji (😍). It’s used to show that you sarcastically love something that happened to you.
Example: “I just got mud on my new white Vans🤩”
👉👈
This combination is used to express that you are shy and scared to do something. It can also be used to Kindly ask someone for a favor.
Example: “Can we pleaseeee go get Starbucks rn 👉👈 “
As you can see, there are many different ways to express the way you are feeling in a simple text. Emojis add spice and flavor to dry text messages. It is fun to add funny sarcastic symbols after your text messages.
Sources
https://www.wired.com/story/guide-emoji/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji
https://medium.com/@heytory/emojis-the-complete-history-6dc81a330144