July 1, 2024
Get ready to bring your texts to the next level with World Emoji Day on July 17, and celebrate the fun texting phenomenon that is emojis! By definition, an emoji is “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion.” You may wonder where emojis came from and how they were popularized into everyday texting usage that we know today. Designer Shigetaka Kurita is considered to be the founding father of today’s emojis. And in 1999, NTT DOCOMO, a Japanese cell phone company, released a set of 176 emojis for mobile phones and pagers.
Fun Fact: The word “emoji” is a blend of two Japanese words: picture and letter.
An emoji can enhance the personality and self-expression of the content in a text. For example, if you were to type to a loved one after a recent birthday get-together, “it was wonderful celebrating your birthday,” you may enjoy adding a party popper emoji toward the end of the sentence to express celebration. Or maybe even a smile emoji to express your happiness over the recent event. This would look something like this:
It was wonderful celebrating your birthday! 😄🎉🎈
With emojis, you can add a layer of self-expression and depth to your text messages.