AES 0119 Emojis'

Emojis are... awesome‍.

Lately, I've been addicted to emojis, they’re so fun and mesmerizing to use. I find them amusing yet oddly complicated and hard to fully grasp. A little chitchat with Ara somehow brought up the topic. I think it started with spamming emojis, and I sarcastically said, "Who even started spamming emojis everywhere? That’s awesome," knowing full well it was me all along. She hit back with, "bisa diteliti fr ," and since I was already deep into educational videos (Answer In Progress really inspires me), I replied, "Imma make a cool short video about it." So, I guess I owe her that.

Long story short, she sent me a reference to a reference, The Etymology Nerd Blog and Emojis Are Weird (Linguistically Speaking), which I thought was really cool. So, here’s the gist of it :

Emoji was invented in Japan in the late ‘90s. The word emoji comes from the Japanese “e” (picture) and “moji” (character). Emojis can be considered pictograms, graphic symbols that convey meaning through visual resemblance to real-world things. They both clarify and complicate messages, creating potential ambiguities based on interpretation. Linguistically, emojis are unique, they serve as an evolving form of written expression, adapting to modern communication. In other words, they evolve. And with that evolution, they take on nuanced meanings, blurring the lines between visual symbols and verbal language.

Safe to say, I was absolutely locked in, watching that video and reading countless etymology blogs. One word to describe them all? Fascinating. Everything runs deeper than we think, if only we dig deep enough. Now, I appreciate emojis even more, and I won’t stop spamming them. In fact, I’m just gonna do it even more.