Say you want to invite a friend to your birthday party. You can send a simple text message, but that would be boring. Instead, why not send a cartoon picture of a cake? This cake is just one of many emojis (表情符号)
Emojis are creative picture-like characters. People use them to show their emotions in a text message or email. Most emojis are yellow faces that show humanemotions. There are also little images(图像) that represent (图像)animals, symbols, shapes and food. Emojis have long been popular among cell phone users in Asia. They first came out in Japan in the 1990s. At that time, texting was just starting to take off in Japan. But people found that short and simple texts couldn't allow them to communicate well. If someone says," I get it", you don't always know what emotion they are trying to express (表达).
That's when emojis were born. People find it interesting and quick to send a mood(语气) or joke in text. "Emoji plays the role that nonverbal (非语言的)I communication, like hand gestures(手势), does in conversation but on a cell phone," Prefessor S. Shyam Sundar at Pennsylvania State University told The New York Times.
Today, there are about 845 emojis. Some of the most popular emojis are the heart shape and laugh-crying face, according to The Wire.
