We are long past July’s iconic holiday, the Fourth, but coming up on the 17th is one of lesser reputation that could easily make you 😃.
That’s right; we are approaching World Emoji Day, a time to celebrate the little characters and symbols that let us wordlessly communicate our feelings.
The media site National Today, which tracks such things, says emojis are worth honoring because “They help us where words fail us.”
And who doesn’t appreciate that we can be succinct in our observations whether they reflect 😢, or ❤️, or👍.
Overseen by a nonprofit consortium in California that suggests which new ones should be adopted, emojis grew rapidly throughout the 1990s, part of the computer revolution that changed our lives.
Why July 17? The unofficial holiday was created in 2014 by Australian tech writer Jeremy Burge, described online as an “emoji historian.” Burge said he chose that day because it’s the date that appears on the calendar emoji 📅 for Apple iPhones. He also founded “Emojipedia,” a website that contains all you need to know about these ubiquitous pictographs.
Emojis have their modern roots in Japan, and in fact their name is derived not from “emotion,” as many believe, but from the Japanese “e” for picture and “moji” for character.
By the end of last year the number of standard emojis had grown to nearly 3,800, with hundreds of millions sent each day. Increasingly, emojis reflect not just feelings or opinions, but social issues as well, such as Gay Pride 🌈.
In our divided America, cultural-issue emojis have created some heated conversation about whether they can be used for hateful ends as well as for understanding. Some critics also maintain that emojis discourage the use of precise language in communication.
But one supportive website notes of emojis, “Nowadays, they seem to be ingrained in our communication habits,” and are used all the time “to say hi, to laugh, to bother someone, to awkwardly ask a girl out, to express our current state of mind, or even to break the ice to start a conversation…When finding adequate words is difficult, an emoji always works!”
Emojipedia says the most popular emoji according to its own users is the red heart displayed above, but also popular is its melancholy iteration: 💔.
Others on the “most popular” list include: 👍, 😂, 🫶, 🙏, and 😭.
So, how to celebrate World Emoji Day?
One website suggests having an online “conversation” with friends using only emojis.
But there’s where we part company. As someone who has made his living putting thoughts on paper with actual words, I’ll go only so far in endorsing these entertaining little creations – so I’m nixing the conversation idea.
I suppose I could use words to argue against it, but somehow it’s quicker, easier, and more expressive to simply say: 👎
Gerry Goldstein (
) a frequent contributor
💡✍️
, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.
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