📱 Day 4: The Emoji You’re Using Might Be from 1999

— And Yes, It’s Time to Feel a Little Bit Old

Hey there, fellow geek! Welcome back to The Curious Geek’s Week, where today we dive into the surprisingly deep and quirky history of something you use every day without even thinking: emojis. 😎😅🔥

Yup — those tiny yellow faces on your phone have a history richer than your morning coffee.
In fact, some of your go-to emojis are older than TikTok, Instagram, and even USB-C ports.
So buckle up, we’re heading back in time... all the way to 1999.

🧠 Wait, What Is an Emoji, Technically?

Before we go full retro, let’s clear this up:

• Emojis = small pictographs representing emotions, objects, or symbols (like 😍, 🍕, or 🚀).
• They're not the same as emoticons (which are made using keyboard characters, like :) or ¯\(ツ)/¯).

Fun fact: The word emoji comes from Japanese:

"e" (絵) = picture + "moji" (文字) = character

So it's got nothing to do with emotion, though that’s what it’s all about now!

🕰️ Back to 1999: The Emoji Origin Story

It all started in Japan, with a guy named Shigetaka Kurita, a designer working for a telecom company.
Back then, texting was becoming a thing, but it lacked emotion and flair. So Kurita created the first emoji set: 176 tiny 12×12-pixel images, to add flavor to Japan’s mobile communication.

Think pagers. Think early SMS. Think pixel art.
It was adorable. And genius.

🌍 The Global Emoji Takeover

It took a while, but eventually the world caught on:

• 2007: Apple considered adding emoji support on iPhones.
• 2010: Emojis were officially added to Unicode (the global character encoding standard).
• 2011: Apple rolled out emoji support worldwide. Android followed suit.

From there? Explosion.
Now we’ve got over 3,600 emojis, from facepalms to flamingos. And yes, they're updated every single year.

🧓 Wait... Are You Still Using the Old Ones?

Believe it or not, a bunch of emojis we still use — like:

• Smiling face with sunglasses 😎
• Crying with laughter 😂
• Thumbs up 👍
  — are all part of the early sets from over a decade ago.

Even weirder? Some platforms (hello, Android) kept using older versions of emoji art styles long after updates were released, meaning your crying face might have looked very different from someone else’s.

💻 Emojis + Code = Match Made in Unicode Heaven

Behind the scenes, emojis are just Unicode characters — like letters or symbols.
That means developers had to:

• Assign emoji a unique code (U+1F602 is 😂 for example).
• Ensure they work across all systems — iPhones, Androids, websites, Windows, etc.
• Update them in a standardized way via the Unicode Consortium.

Yes, there is a literal Emoji Committee. They vote on whether we get new emojis.
(We see you, bubble tea emoji.)

🤯 Mind-Blowing Emoji Facts

• Emojis have been used in court cases to determine tone/intent.
• There's an Emoji Movie (please don't watch it).
• The "Face with Tears of Joy" emoji 😂 was Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year in 2015.
• Emoji art exists — people literally paint with them.
• GitHub, Slack, and even code editors like VS Code support emoji in commit messages and comments. 🔥

🧠 So... Why Do Emojis Feel So Powerful?

Because they mix psychology and communication:

• Visual + emotional + instant = Perfect for fast digital convos
• Your brain reads emojis like micro-expressions — they help convey tone in cold digital spaces
• They let you communicate across languages and cultures
  (A smiling face means the same thing in Japan and Jamaica.)

They’re the universal meme language.

🛠️ Bonus Geek Tip: Add Emojis in Code

Want to add emoji magic to your code? Try these:

• In comments:
  // 🔥 Optimized loop
• In commit messages:
  feat: ✨ added dark mode toggle
• In UI elements:
  Use emojis in buttons, alerts, or success messages — people love it!

🏁 Final Thought

You’re not just using emojis to spice up your chats — you’re using pieces of internet history.
Next time you type a smiley, remember: you’re speaking a decades-old language built by geeks, artists, and Unicode warriors.

Now go forth and emoji responsibly. 😜✨🧠

📅 Coming Up Tomorrow:

“Silicon Valley Was Born in a Garage — But Was It Really?” 🛠️🏡💡
We’re digging into the origin myth of tech’s most iconic hotspot. Was it really built by college kids in garages... or is there more to the story? Get ready to bust some legends.

Stay curious. Stay geeky. Stay awesome. 💡✨

Happy Learning !!