NEW YORK—When it comes to emojis, the future is very, very ... Face with Tears of Joy.
If you don’t know what that means then you: a) aren’t a 14-year-old girl, b) love to hate those tiny pictures that people text you all the time, or c) are nowhere near a smartphone or online chat.
Otherwise, here in 2016, it’s all emojis, all the time. And Face with Tears of Joy, by the way, is a bright yellow happy face with a classic, toothy grin as tears fall.
The Face was chosen by Oxford Dictionaries as its 2015 “word” of the year, based on its popularity and reflecting the rise of emojis to help charitable causes, promote businesses, and generally assist oh-so-many-more of us in further expressing ourselves on social media and in texts.
The Beyhive knows. The collective fan base of Beyoncé recently spammed Amber Rose with bumblebee emojis when they sensed a diss of their queen.
Taco Bell also knows. Emoji overseers approved a taco character last year after a yearlong campaign by the company to get one up and running, rewarding users of said taco on Twitter with gifts of free photos, GIFs, and other virtual playthings to celebrate.
So what’s it all about? Here’s a look at the past, present, and rosy future of emojis:
