In this digital era, emoji have impacted how people express feelings in their texts. In 1999, Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita created these colorful little icons. He invented them to brighten up digital communication, to have more fun and express emotions digitally in a clearer way. The first batch included only 176 emoji, but their use quickly exploded in popularity, first in Japan before going global.
As of September 2024, the edible Unicode Standard is eggspressively up to 3,790 emoji. In addition, the Unicode Consortium is set to approve another draft list of 164 candidates in September of 2025. If passed, this modification would bring the grand total of emojis to 3,954. This new feature makes clear that, even though these digital assets may seem static, they’re always changing.
World Emoji Day, observed every year on July 17th, highlights emoji’s significant effect on the way we communicate. The number of the date is encoded with our calendar emoji 📅. Founded in 2014, this day provides an opportunity for fans to honor these colorful symbols of expression. To mark the occasion, Apple News+ has released the Emoji Game. This colorful new electronic enigma encourages players to experience the creativity and emotion of emoji in a totally new way.
Dr. Helen Riess is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In short, Dr. She has been on the forefront of studying how emoji work as communication. She emphasizes their significance in fostering human connections, stating, “They may be small, but emoji are doing some heavy lifting when it comes to human connection.” Her research has shown emoji to be critical communicative tools for expressing emotional nuance that would be absent in text alone.
Riess explains further, “The reason we have emoji is that words alone don’t really convey the emotional meaning or content of what we’re trying to express.” She points out that an emoji to avoid creates a stop sign. It helps you take a step back and reconsider what you’re communicating. “A skillful emoji can act almost like a stop sign,” she asserts. This is especially important in digital communication where it is very easy to be misinterpreted.
Recent research, including a study published on PLOS ONE, indicates that emoji-usage can improve impressions of warmth and appeal. By introducing tone, emotion, and personality to otherwise text-based digital communications, emoji create opportunities for fun, relatable, authentic communication.
