On September 19, 1982, at 11:44 a.m., an emoticon consisted of colons, hyphen, and parentheses appeared on a university bulletin board, opening a new chapter of online history. Emotions are now beyond expressing people’s emotions and behaviors to include, ethnicity, gender, disability, and so much more. As the world's first emoticon marks its 40th anniversary, it will be a meaningful time to cover when and how emoticons began and the changes they have undergone. 

The Background of Emoticons and Emojis 

 It was the time when Scott Palmer, a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States posted :-), a smiling expression on the school online bulletin board where only text was available. Professor Coleman mentioned that emoticons were said to have solved the problem so that it could express jokes that were difficult to deliver in only letters. “If someone did not understand the joke and reacted with anger and hostility, the atmosphere of the original debate could disappear and only the quarrel remained.” He added, “In the era of using Internet media that used only text, it was difficult to fully comprehend jokes since we could not tell gestures or facial expressions.”

 Emoticons have evolved to add colors and pictures. Shigetaka Kurita, a design researcher at NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile telecommunication company, is known as the “Father of Emoji.” Kurita wanted to make the letters used in cell phones richer. He was inspired from Japanese comic books and road signs in 1999 and made 176 symbols into pictures and named them “Emojis.” 

 Over the next 40 years, emoticons have grown to be an integral part of digital communication, with non-profits encouraging the standardization of emojis. Emojis help communication in areas in which even language does not provide. In the digital world, there are many things that could not have been delivered without emoticons and emojis.

Narrative in Emoji

 Over time, “Speaking with Emoji,” which makes a story or idea by connecting several emojis, emerged. According to the blog narrativesinemoji.tumblr.com,here is a picture of Les Misérables, written by French writer Victor Hugo, compressed into 95 emojis. In addition to the stories of the main character, Jean Valjean, it also reminds us of the French national anthem La Marseilles, which marks the end of the musical Les Misérables.

 Furthermore, there is a compilation of movies, such as Titanic, Wall-E, and Taxi Driver using about 10 emojis. There are also 40 ‘Emoji Stories’ depicting the 'Wall Street Protests’ that occurred in the United States in 2011 against the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the immorality of financial institutions.

 Even a “picture book” made of only emojis has been published. Fred Bennenson, an American computer expert, raised $3,500 through crowd sourcing and reproduced Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick using emojis. The content and composition of the book were organized by Amazon’s Mechanical Turk feature, a job board where individuals sign up to do work for a fee, and workers are paid from the funds raised.

 Kim Ji-hyun, a professor of Media Communication at HYU, says that in Korea, emojis which are usually referred to as emoticons, are actively used as a kind of nonverbal communication that can be used as a means of delivering messages and expressing emotions without knowing a specific language. Recently, they are not simply composed of images or symbols, but are also produced in the form of animation and sold on social media or messengers. Hence, the scope of its use is expanding from simple emotional expressions to describe specific situations. This implies a diversification of online conversational methods, such as “Narrative in Emojis.”

Emojis in the Protection of Human Rights and Future Education

 Emoji usage is spreading beyond conversation to social movements. Swedish children’s human rights protection group BRIS has distributed “Abused Emoji” free of charge to inform the seriousness of the damage caused by domestic violence against children. These are images such as children with bruises on one eye, images of parents drinking alcohol, and children thinking “dark thoughts” using a skull.

 Lee Ja-yeon, a professor of the Department of Media Communication at HYU, mentioned the representation issue, a topic that has been continuously studied in the media community since television became a leading mass media form. For instance, in the United States, racial representation critically deals with the fact that news anchors, reporters, or people who usually appear on television as actors or advertising models are biased towards certain races. As societies have diversified, there have been many claims that the media should represent minorities more fairly in many realms, including gender, religion, sexual identity and disability. As part of this movement, we see more disabled and sexual minority characters appearing in dramas and movies in Korea than before.

 In particular, children and teenagers who have grown up with digital devices may think of appropriate emojis before appropriate words when talking. Professor Lee added, “In the case of child abuse at home, it is urgent to recognize it from the outside, but children often do not communicate with the outside because of fear or because they do not know how. These days, children often have cell phones, so the social contribution will be great if one more person can be rescued through an emoji.”

Educational Applicability of Emoticons

 Digital textbooks, which are attracting attention as future educational materials, are expected to lead a new learning environment. Until now, they have included only basic functions, such as text delivery and data attachment. What are some attempts to expand the educational availability of emoticons to compensate for this?

 Kang Ki-heun, who is in charge of content planning at EBS, a Korean educational broadcasting company, cites that in terms of education, emoticons and emojis would be beneficial for children’s emotional development of children. He added, “Every child understand emojis in a different way, thus it would be good to show emoticons and have children share opinions. It is more intuitive than text messages or symbols, so it would be valuable to use them as an educational aid when educating children with developmental disabilities or preschoolers.”

Future Prospects

 Apple has recently gained huge popularity with the launch of an Italian-specific hand gesture emoji. Emojis, with tears in their eyes but a smile on their mouths, have also become the biggest trend. 

 The cell phone, which is only slightly larger than the palm of the hand, contains more than 3,500 emojis. Looking at the emoticons that have been created, there are many expressions, but not enough to capture the subtle difference of emotions in people. It will be amazing to see how many more diverse, articulate emoticons there will be one day. There are dozens of variations of joy and sorrows that we feel. Just as emoticons in mobile phones and messengers are used in various expressions, will put on the input of people’s mind today. 

 Leading a huge social phenomenon and trend beyond simple emoticons and emojis, emojis will be inseparable from the digital world in the future. We should look forward to the positive influence of emoticons, which are becoming the world’s official language, as it is a language beyond simple trends.