[sametmax]

You are missing the point. The whole reason people use emojis is because they don't have a clear meaning. They have a blurry range of multiple interpretations, spanning more on the emotional side than the intellectual one.

- you can use them when you don't have anything to say, don't know what to say, or don't want to say something but need to answer something

- you can use them without thinking much

- you can use them to exchange on a more emotional basic mode

- you can use them to give personal context : feeling, mood, expectations, etc.

- you can use them to break language and sociological barriers, that exist in our very own society.

Those are the stuff we all do without knowing when socializing in groups, flirting, negotiating, lying, trying to escape responsibility, having fun, killing time, maintaining links, being human... But IRL we use a different symbolism: body language, social positioning, tones, etc.

They are not accurate. They don't need to be. We are quite basic in our regular interactions. Usually they are around sex, power, fun or love. Not about the geopolitical situation in Venezuela during march 78.

Now, being able to do that with pure text requires not only much more effort, time and skills, but also knowledge. And the internet/mobile age gave everyone the opportunity to write, but most people are not that good with writing. Really not that good. Plus if basic communication requires too much effort it loses effectiveness.

So they just translate their IRL skills into something they can use by writing: it's just a shift in symbolism.

Personally, I think the emojis were getting more and more popular as girls used computers more and more.

[itomato]

We were using the equivalent to "emoji" in our 1980's computer labs as teens.

People were using typewriters to expand on the standard character set long before that.

We finally have a platform-agnostic, expressive symbolic language to complement the written word - a triumph.

[amygdyl]

I can't remember if we had any concept of a emoji but it was a habit for a term for my friends and I to use the "coloration" of the sprites in our collective PacMan clone to communicate the mood when we last left the computer and we graded the visual in representation of how we were feeling about our most recent additions to the source code.

[freehunter]

Not to mention that using clear concise language is sometimes not socially acceptable. Saying "The expected outcome of this conversation is for you to agree to have sexual relations with me" is likely going to be far less effective than just sending a smirking face emoji. It might even get you slapped or blocked. Sometimes the less said, the better.

Likewise, saying the words "yes I like that" is very different than sending a thumbs up emoji. Like you said, emoji is blurry, and clear concise language can often portray ideas that you'd rather not get into. Saying that I like something is a strong positive indicator. Maybe my feelings aren't that firm. Should I then say "yes, that's acceptable"? But then the person might feel hurt that their idea is merely acceptable. Maybe I should say "yes, I like that to an extent but I don't like it that strongly at all", but that implies I have reasons to not like it, which may not be the case. Sending a thumbs up emoji is just simple approval and nothing more. My wife made a dinner I enjoyed but didn't love. The best way to say that I didn't hate eating it but also didn't think it was the greatest meal ever is just a simple thumbs up, preferably with my mouth full of food so she doesn't ask for me to verbally explain how I feel about it.

I know this all really sucks for people who are not good at picking up on non-verbal social cues or various types of irony (including sarcasm), but human emotion is sometimes difficult to express in clear, concise language. You always have the option of asking the person what they meant, especially if you explain that you're bad at subtle communications.

[sametmax]

I was very bad at picking up non verbal clues myself. Like every thibg else you can learn it. But first you must accept irrationality in your life. After that social life gets much easier.