The emoji is more than just an emoticon on digital steroids.
This week on That’s What They Say, host Rina Miller and University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan take a closer look at emojis and their use in the digital age.
“Emoji or emojis are those little images or icons that you can use while texting or emailing. It includes smiley faces, but also pictures of cars and bells and things like that. So it’s a much richer set of symbols than the emoticons that I think many of us are familiar with” says Curzan.
According to Curzan, Emojis first show up in the late 1990s in Japan, but they quickly moved to the U.S. and eventually the word gets incorporated into English, and in 2013, the Oxford English dictionary chose to include emoji.
People are using emojis to communicate, and Curzan cites their simplicity and the tendency of people to be both playful and creative while using emojis.
What are your favorite emojis to use while texting? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
Omar Saadeh - Michigan Radio Newsroom
