Emoticons and emojis: their importance in pop culture
In the last forty years, technology has galloped without stopping for a moment, actually running at an increasingly dizzying pace with which we try to keep up every day so as not to be "cut off" from the world. One of the universes that have developed more in this sense is undoubtedly that of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), with the planet Internet leading a real revolution in everyone's lives. It was inevitable that in an area where communication represents a main aspect for the functioning of the same technological apparatus, even the language underwent profound changes, modifying the way we express ourselves with others. Above all on a textual level.
A circumstance like this has created the birth of new needs, such as that of being able to express one's emotions also through the written word: it is in this context that emoticons are born, the smileys used to communicate their moods within a text, which today turns thirty-eight. In recent years they have evolved, so much so that today we exploit a more "evolved" version of them, if you like, that of the emoji.
But how were emoticons born? And how have they made their way into our language, becoming symbols increasingly used in pop culture too?
