Era of emojis

Emojis have slowly and surreptitiously crept into our daily lives. It may look trite or childish, but it's definitely not a fad. It has unbottled an army of icons to express our nuanced feelings at just a click of a button.

Originated in Japan, it tiptoed its way to popular culture after Google and Apple added it to the Unicode Standard in 2010. The Oxford English Dictionary declared it the word of the year in 2015 and as the cliché goes, 'The rest is history!'

The user's phone is armed with a palette of emojis to convey one's nuanced feelings from 'flabbergasted' to 'disgruntled', and everything in between. It has tailor-made emojis to convey feelings like 'tickled pink', 'flustered', and a 'blush', ready to be explored. The pack is insane; you will find yourself dumb scrolling with an amused look. It adds drama to banal digital banter.
Banter with family is tempered with these: 'soft smile', 'huge grin', 'bashful', 'shy', or 'tearful', at a sob story all have their moments.

It's a field day when it comes to chats with friends; you can have 'playful', 'goofy', 'smirk', all stacked up to add that element of fun and quirk.

'Folded hands' emoji and the emoji with a halo are often repeated across milieus and generations; little semantic difference could be there in the interpretations, but they are still high in popularity.
To add to the fun, emojis have a companion called GIFs; both are mobile-friendly and lace the conversation with punch and humour. With the advent of smartphones, there has been a spike. This interesting format keeps users hooked across different platforms. 

These super creative icons easily grab attention and can jazz up any chat. It may have become ubiquitous or done to death; still, it is here to stay, not like any other passing trend or fad.

The author is a freelance writer and columnist