Emoticons And Emojis.
Are they the same thing?
Short answer, no. While they look very similar, and are somewhat similar in what they achieve, they are not the same thing.
Vs. 
The Difference
-An emoticon is a representation of a human emotion using keys on a keyboard. For example :)
-An emoji is a small digital image used to express an idea or emotion. For example 😃
The History of the Emoticon
On September 19th, 1982 Scott Fahlman (AKA Father of the Smiley face) gave birth to the very first emoticon. At the time, Fahlman was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He had posted on the school’s computer bulletin board the silly idea to add :-) when students were making a joke and :-( when they were not joking. Little did he know at the time, he would make a huge impact on human expression online. While he may have not realized it, Scott did in fact solve a huge issue at the time. Prior to 1982, there had been no good way to indicate whether someone was being sarcastic via text or email communication. There was no great way to tell if someone was happy, sad, angry, etc. Unless they flat out said “(p.s. I am really mad at you).” In the English language, there is so many ways to interpret a message without the use of facial expression, tone of voice, or even body language.
The emoticon quickly caught on and was widely recognized within a couple years. Professor Fahlman had not only solved a need, but he had triggered people’s imagination everywhere. This lead to the creation of many many more human expressions being expressed via text.
What was his big mistake?
The professor didn’t have the slightest inkling that he was on to something. Had he recognized this or been told from a friend that this was a pretty cool thing to discover, he might’ve thought in a more entrepreneurial light. He failed to trademark, copy-write, or patent this idea and it’s got to be his biggest regret. Could you imagine the amount of money he’d have, had he been a little bit smarter?
Does this just mean that he is a nice guy with no hidden agenda?
Maybe.
Could this also mean he is an idiot?
Maybe.
I get second hand pissed off for him, almost 40 years later. This poor chap really missed out on what could’ve been the easiest money he could ever earn. I guess you live and you learn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The History of the Emoji
The emoji was first seen used in 1997. People probably assume the word “emoji” comes from the word emotion, but that is entirely not the case. It is actually just a coincidence. The word comes from the Japanese word for picture. DoCoMo was a Japanese mobile phone company that originally had the idea to add a heart picture “♥️” on a new pager made for teens. People loved it. So much so, that when the company added a new pager for business professionals, the public was mad there wasn’t the famous heart icon on the products software. This in turn sent people to another brand that had already adopted the heart from DoCoMo, and included some other new features. This mistake of failing to add the heart was a sign for every other company at the time to start creating more and more icons that can be added to text. The trouble, early on, was that if you wanted to use these emojis your friends had to have the same device as you. As popularity continued to grow, the problem needed a solution. In 2007 a Silicon Valley nonprofit standardized the software so that the pictures appeared the same or very similar and different devices. Today, on Facebook Messenger alone, nearly 5 billion emojis are sent a day. Quite the progression from a heart on a messily pager.
I feel like almost everyone would agree the emoticon and emoji creations have only been good for our society. They address the issue of emotion and feelings on an unemotional platform. They can stand in for verbal tone and clarify the tone of a message in fewer characters.
Some negative Nancy’s disagree however, and rightly so. These opposers say that emojis erode the ability to communicate clearly. They also see it as a lazy and unprofessional way of interacting.
Emoji Scandal
This last piece is just a funny meme I remember from a while back. There was this whole segment on a news channel that warned parents of the dangers of emojis. People thought it was hilarious and clowned on the news channel, making memes about it. The news’s message was shared in a way like “kids we know your secret.” They “decoded” emojis and their dirty undertones. They also warned for combinations of certain emojis that meant your kid was up to no good. It’s a pretty funny article and I linked it above.
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