The 17th is World Emoji Day, celebrating the symbols synonymous with visual communication on phones. New releases incorporate physical disabilities, while symbols for menstruation and regional customs such as chimarrão are under consideration
The 17th is World Emoji Day, celebrating those adorable icons that have become synonymous with mobile communication. The date is no accident: July 17 is the day shown on the calendar emoji.
Created in Japan in 1999, emojis took off in 2011 when Apple introduced an emoji keyboard on its devices, providing access to the original 176 symbols. Today there are almost 3,000. This substantial increase certainly measures their success.
But the indicators are not just numerical.
In 2013, the United States Library of Congress added to its collection a complete translation of Moby-Dick, one of the classics of American literature, rewritten entirely in emojis. And in 2016, New York’s MoMA acquired for its design collection the first set of emojis created by Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita.
This shows that emojis are not just cuteness. They are cultural phenomena that reveal the communicative processes of our time. Increasingly varied, they are approved by the Unicode Consortium, which manages the standard by which computers recognize text. They express a much greater complexity, also reflecting social diversity, such as racial differences, introduced in 2015 through emojis with different skin tones.
The big news is emojis related to wheelchair users, people with visual and hearing impairments, and people with reduced mobility. Wheelchairs, guide dogs, men and women with canes, and mechanical arms and legs are among the new emojis to be implemented by 2019.
An emoji of a red drop is also expected to be released in response to feminist groups’ calls for a menstruation symbol. Other additions include ballet shoes in clothing, chimarrão in drinks, and a yawning-face emoji.
Ultimately, the segmentation and diversification of emojis, and their orientation toward more personalized and inclusive dialogue, show that visual communication has been thoroughly “emojified.” Next Wednesday, the 17th, is a day to celebrate. To find out what is happening, visit: https://worldemojiday.com
Transcript of Giselle Beiguelman’s Ouvir Imagens column, broadcast every Monday at 8 a.m. on Rádio USP (93.7).
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