Misunderstood

We are using these emojis completely wrong

A picture is worth a thousand words. But what if the picture is completely misunderstood? A look at the emojis used dozens of times a day in mobile communication shows that many of them are used contrary to their actual meaning. A contribution to better international understanding on the occasion of World Emoji Day.

The first emojis saw the light of day at the end of the 1990s with the Japanese mobile phone provider DoCoMo, but their origins go back much further. However, it was only with their inclusion in the international Unicode standard that a globally standardized coding system was created for picture characters.

How the colorful emojis are interpreted, however, is - probably due to their Japanese origin - very different in many countries, which is why the Unicode Consortium, which is responsible for the development, publication and administration of emojis, has to keep "tweaking" facial expressions and gestures so that the images are used and understood correctly by as many people as possible.

For example, a change note from the consortium shows that the supposedly crying emoji is not actually shedding a tear. You can see what the emoji really stands for instead in our slideshow. If you would like to know more about emojis: On the website of the Unicode Consortium (unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html) you will find a list of all the nearly 3800 emojis currently in use, including their meaning.