I think it goes back a lot longer than that - humans have been using symbols to express feelings for thousands of years. Written language is really the child of that. Personally I think humans will always communicate via little pictogram symbols, regardless of how perfect written communication with words is. There is something very innate about two eyes and an upward curved line meaning happy - and lots of similar examples. Emojis are just a form of this.

True but I don’t think any pictogram language has ever been as ugly as emoji. It’s the “programmer art” of pictograms. Brushes and carving seem to be helpful design constraints to drive restraint, regularity and simplicity.

I fully acknowledge they are part of language now and it’s a much harder decision to not support them, my point relating to the topic is that they aren’t simply new words, or an interaction pattern or a ligature but kawaii design elements that are very viral - driving further spread of poop emoji aesthetic.

I hope that they continue to evolve into typefaces that allow for more elegant design decisions.

There is a lot of value in the emoji concept if we could separate from their design. For example, I created a reasoning tool prototype driven by emoji - it was just so ugly I had to burn it with fire. It was also inconsistent across platforms.

I agree - emojis often add emotional metadata to sentence. Often times it could be communicated with words but emojis are easier so naturally people are going to use them.

In theory perhaps. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people typing LOL or laugh w/ tears emoji without so much as a grin, let alone a 'laugh out loud'.