The Life of An Emoji

They are funny little creatures that we can’t live without

Photo by Domingo Alvarez E on Unsplash

There is a history to these little people without bodies.

Emojis is a word that didn’t exist while growing up. So where did they come from, and what would we do without them?

Like everything, emojis had a beginning. Somebody had to come up with the idea. And sure enough, my friend Dr. Google had the answers.

Let’s begin with the word itself:

Many assume the word emoji has roots in emotion, but the resemblance is purely coincidental. It comes from the Japanese for a picture (絵, pronounced eh), plus a letter or character (文字, mōji). Essentially, the word describes a pictograph.

And now a brief history:

The modern-day emoji can be loosely traced back to chatrooms in the 1990s, when primitive emojis were used in conversations, : ) to signal a smile or ; ) to punctuate a joke or sarcastic jab. But designer Shigetaka Kurita is considered to be the founding father of today’s emojis.

And now we live with them, like minions and fairies.

Emojis help to display facial expressions, tone of voice, and human gestures in digital communication.