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Smile! Today is World Emoji Day

Why July 17 for a day to celebrate graphical representations of the range of human emotions, expressions and feelings? According to ABC News, July 17 was picked to commemorate the “emerging language” of social media simply because the Apple calendar emoji has traditionally been set to July 17. You can enjoy the #WorldEmojiDay anthem below:

At first glance, an emoji day may seem a little silly, or just an opportunity to tweet dozens of graphics of decreasing amusement and interest. However, there could be a serious side, from the cultural, anthropological and sociological aspects. Are emojis a type of language? Will it be more important in the future to be able to read (speak?) emoji?

Ginger Parrot s proposed ginger emoji

Ginger Parrot’s proposed ginger emoji
Ginger Parrot

To add to this, there is a democratic undercurrent. People are able to chose and select their own emojis and express themselves through their chosen symbols. Emojis, in a sense, can function as mirrors to society and represent important cultural values surrounding such issues as ethnicity, religion, politics, self-determination, and sexuality. For instance, with gender roles, there are several which depict men in jobs like a police officer, paramedic or construction worker; however, for women, most emojis are ‘princesses’ and the like. Some organizations, like Google, have recently said they are committed to change this.

Such is the cultural significance that Oxford Dictionaries named (Face With Tears of Joy) its 2015 Word of the Year. World Emoji Day was created by London-based Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia (@Emojipedia.)

While this emoji is the world’s most popular, different countries have different favorites, as Twitter Australia (@TwitterAU) has messaged:

Global emojcons  as reported by Twitter Australia.

Global emojcons, as reported by Twitter Australia.
Twitter Australia

Among the most popular emojis are:

Shrug
Face With Tears of Joy
❤ Heavy Black Heart
Smiling Face With Heart-Shaped Eyes
Flag for France
Smirking Face
Face Throwing a Kiss
Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes
Upside-Down Face

While there is an element of “freedom” with the emoji there is also a degree of regulation. The emoji emerged on Japanese mobile phones in the late 1990s as a series of ideograms (a graphic symbol that represents an idea) and smileys. Today there is the system of Unicode® Emoji, used by each of the main smartphone and tablet manufacturers and the main operating systems, like Apple and Android. Thus a range of emjois are possible, although the spectrum has an element of control.

As a sign of greater diversity, however, and to mark the July 17 day, the Unicode Emoji subcommittee has agreed to add 11 new “professional” emojis in both male and female options with all skin tones.

New emoji for gender equality.

New emoji for gender equality.
Google

As to which are the best new emjois, as part of the celebration of all-things emoji, you can vote for the best of 37 new emojis released as part of Unicode 8. The front runners, at the time of writing are:

Which of the 37 new emojis released as part of Unicode 8 in 2015 do you enjoy the most? Did one surp...

Which of the 37 new emojis released as part of Unicode 8 in 2015 do you enjoy the most? Did one surprise you, or sneak into your life in unexpected ways?
Emojipedia (@Emojipedia)

Unicode 9 was released in June 2016, with 72 new emojis, although most of these have yet to be made available to social media users.

To see the latest offerings for world emoji day, go to #WorldEmojiDay.

An emoticon  this one is  slightly shocked .

An emoticon, this one is ‘slightly shocked’.
Guy Haley

Avatar photo
Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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