The Colors of Emoji [Happy World Emoji Day!]

So for those of you who don't know, today is a very special day for our little smiley friends that help us communicate better, or at least sometimes. That is because today, July 17th, is World Emoji Day! In the spirit of this international day, Apple decided to announce a new set of more than 70 emojis that will release later this year.

Of all the emojis in this set, the focus is on better representation of people with less common hair colors and styles. In addition to this, Apple's new set also includes emojis for the kangaroo, parrot, mango, lettuce, party face, pleading face, and many others! Arriving in a free software update this fall, the set will add to the thousands of other emojis available on Apple devices. However, while this holiday and new update are cool to talk about, I also wanted to touch on why this is all so incredibly interesting.

Emojis today are used in practically all forms of communication and for good reason. This is because in the 21st century, a lot of our daily communication is done through text. While this does allow us to communicate instantly with anyone at any time, it takes away a huge part of human interaction, our faces. In text, things like sarcasm, tone, and flow are lost and just blended into one emotionless blurb of letters. This lack of being able to convey emotion is what led to the popularity of emojis, or "picture" (e) and "character" (moji)!

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These small images allow us to convey thoughts and emotions in a way that was not possible before. Answer me these questions. How many times have you used the laughing emoji after a serious sentence to show that you were joking? How often have you used the blushing emoji to make a compliment more meaningful? Your answers are probably a lot and a lot! The ease in which we can communicate emotions and feelings now is absolutely incredible.

However, this popularity in emojis over the years has really put the important of their design at a high priority. They not only have to be socially correct, like the skin tone outcry in 2015, but also be recognizable to a huge population of people from various backgrounds. Not to be dramatic, but emojis are now a universal language that is used by millions of people everyday. So next time you look at your keyboard of friendly fces, just take a minute to appreciate the work that went into designing each one!

Let me know down below what your favorite emoji is! Also, don't forget to like and share this post!

- Jared

#Apple #Emoji