The Wonderful World of Emojis
ORIGIN
Emojis were first created in a Japanese research facility.
Picture messages were on the rise for Japanese cell phone users in the late 1990s. Mobile phone companies started noticing the trend because photo messages are larger to send than text messages. The photo messages were creating problems for mobile operators since they did not have the support to send thousands if not millions of photo messages sent a day by their 80 million users. They needed a simple solution so engineers came up with the emoji.
DoCoMo i-mode, a mobile phone company in Japan, was the first to allow its users to use pictures of commonly used emoticons through text messages.
Shigetaka Kurita designed the first emojis for cellphones when he was with DoCoMo i-mode. The emojis debuted in February 1999.
Kurita was inspired by manga (Japanese comics), Chinese characters and street signs. He wanted to convey emotions and thoughts but also combine the two. He created 176 images that became the foundation for the emojis we use now.
EMOTICON VS. EMOJI
Emoticons are sequences of keyboard symbols that represent a facial expression.
Emojis are digital picture symbols that represent facial expressions, concepts or just things in general.
Both are very similar yet people tend to confuse them or use the terms interchangeably.
Used primarily in text only mediums, emoticons came about in September 1982.
Small disclaimer: They were probably invented and created multiple times over the course of history but since I’m going with the digital era this will do.
Computer scientist Scott Fahlman suggested using happy faces :-) or sad faces :-( to distinguish jokes from serious statements online for the Carnegie Mellon University message board.
Emoticon got its name shortly after when “emotion” and “icon” were combined.
Emojis get their name from the Japanese “e” meaning picture and “moji” meaning character. Similar to pictographs or the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
STEVE JOBS AND THE IPHONE
The iPhone broke into the Japanese market with the help of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Steve Jobs.
A couple of years before the iPhone came out, Son brought his idea of a iPod mobile phone to Jobs. He didn’t know at the time that Apple already had their idea in the works. Jobs rejected his proposal but Son asked to be the sole carrier of the phone in Japan when the product was ready.
At the time, Son had made a name for himself as a technology entrepreneur in Japan. He sold two companies by the age of 19 worth more than $3 million. But when he met with Jobs he had nothing to do with the mobile industry.
Jobs mainly rejected him because he didn’t even have control in a mobile phone company or anything else to offer. Why would Jobs take a chance on a millionaire who knows nothing about the industry?
Son spent over $15 billion to buy Vodafone Japan in 2006 and renamed it SoftBank Mobile. The company soon announced a deal with Apple in 2008 to carry the iPhone.
Emoji keyboards are now readily available on all iPhones. You would just need to enable them for use.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Emojis have become quite the popular choice for communication.
Originally used for texting only, you can now find emojis everywhere from merchandise to social media campaigns. They have even debuted as Halloween costumes this past year.
You can also find emojis all over social media.
The sports world has started to incorporate emojis into their social media channels.
Some teams in particular are starting to use emojis to describe their players as well.
One of the unique features that emojis offer….they’re catchy.
As soon as you see one you can interpret it in seconds. Your brain just mindlessly knows what it is. Instead of having to read any words you just need to look at the emojis and you’ll get an idea of what they’re trying to convey.
I’d rather look at emojis first since they stand out between all the text.
They make boring things fun.
Take award shows for example, I generally don’t watch them because they’re long and just kind of boring.
But Twitter came out with special emojis for the Oscars. If you used a certain hashtag you’d be able to see the statue emoji.
Just like the ones the stars win.
Popular websites like Buzzfeed have created fun quizzes to guess popular songs at the Grammys or movies nominated for Oscars.
Last but not least is the Kimoji.
The Kardashian megastar once again proved she is quite the business woman when she came out with her own emojis that represented her life.
The star included an emoji of her famous butt, her cry face and other notable items like her outfits.
She even used emojis to announce her second child.
Whether you like them or not, emojis are sure to stay for the near future.
So learn them and enjoy!
