by Kate Hedrick
Arts, Style, & Beauty Editor
Emojis. We know them, we love them, but we rarely take the time to think deeply about them. From their history to the generational divide in their usage to the favorite emojis of Bradley students, there’s quite a lot to discover about our favorite colorful characters.
History
What we now know as emojis were derived from emoticons, combinations of characters meant to form a picture. :-) for a smiley face, <3 for a heart, so on. First conceived of by Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Scott Fahlman in 1982, these simple emoticons grew more complex in the following decade.
Emojis as we know them got their start in 1997 on SoftBank, a Japanese cell carrier. In fact, the word emoji itself is Japanese in origin, roughly translating as ‘written picture character’. The original SoftBank emojis, 99 in total, were entirely black and white and rendered in a simplistic pixel art style.
Two years later, interface designer Shigetaka Kurita created 176 additional emojis, notable for being the first emojis rendered in color. From there, emojis grew in popularity both in Japan and across the world, becoming more colorful and detailed as technology improved. Today, Apple users have access to more than 3,600 emojis.
Generational Divide
Interestingly, different generations tend to use emojis in varying ways, the contrast being most pronounced between Gen X and Gen Z. “I’ve noticed that older folks love to use all of the reaction emojis in their texts”, says Kyle Metzler (12), a habit noticeable in many of our parents and older relatives.
Gen Z, on the other hand, uses them rather sparingly in genuine conversation, but very often when joking. “Sometimes we use a series of emojis as a joke. Not many people are serious with them,” Metzler says. Joking conversations and memes are the main context in which many members of Gen Z use emojis frequently.
Bradley Favorites
This focus on comedy is evident in the emoji choices of Bradley students. Metzler states that one of his favorite emojis is “😭 - I use this when I’m laughing at something, because it seems so genuine.” He also highlights the troll emoji (🧌) as a favorite.
Others have favorite emojis they can always count on to punctuate a conversation. Ben Haskins (10) likes the skull (💀), nerd, (🤓) and eye rolling (🙄) emojis. He also states that “I use them too much. Another of Haskins’ favorite emojis is “😻, because I can use it whenever, and it’s funny.” The cat emojis are a perennial favorite.
Whether you use emojis to be funny, to add emphasis to your conversations, or just because you can, take a minute to appreciate the colorful characters that make your day (and your phone screen) a little bit brighter.