Hi there! Have you ever seen those little smiley faces and fun pictures people send on their phones? They’re called emojis! Today, we’re going to learn all about them. My friend Doug is here to help us understand where emojis come from and why they’re so special.
Emojis are tiny pictures that people use when they send messages on their phones. They can be smiley faces, silly faces, thumbs-up signs, or even animals! You can find an emoji for almost anything you can think of.
Have you ever wondered who made emojis? Well, they were invented by a man named Shigetaka Kurita in the late 1990s. That’s when computers looked very different, and your parents were probably kids! Shigetaka Kurita is from Japan, and the word “emoji” actually comes from the Japanese language. It means “picture word.”
Shigetaka Kurita came up with the idea of emojis to solve a problem. Imagine if you sent a message to a friend saying, “Want to work on our project after school today?” and your friend replied, “Sure.” But what does “sure” mean? Is your friend excited or just saying yes because they have to?
When we talk to someone in person, we can see their face and hear their voice, which helps us understand how they feel. But when we write or type a message, it’s harder to know someone’s feelings. That’s where emojis come in! They help show how we’re feeling when we send messages.
Emojis add something called “tone” to our messages. Tone is not about what we say, but how we say it. When we speak, we use our voice and face to show if we’re happy, sad, or excited. But when we write, the tone can get lost. Emojis help bring that tone back!
For example, if you write “sure” and add a smiley-face emoji, your friend will know you’re happy about it. There are emojis for all kinds of feelings, like being shy, angry, or even laughing so hard that you cry!
When emojis were first invented, there were only 200 simple black-and-white ones. Now, there are over 1,000 colorful and detailed emojis for all kinds of feelings and things!
So, emojis were created to help us share our feelings in messages. Now, people all over the world use them every day. Thanks to Pedro for asking such a great question!
Before we go, Doug has some more questions he’s thinking about answering next time. You can choose from: How can cats see in the dark? Why do our skeletons have so many bones? Or why do people carve pumpkins for Halloween? Make sure to vote for your favorite question. Stay curious, and see you next time!
Emoji Storytelling: Create a short story using emojis! Ask your child to think of a simple story, like going to the park or having a birthday party. Then, let them choose emojis to represent different parts of the story. For example, they might use a sun emoji for a sunny day or a cake emoji for a birthday. After creating their emoji story, have them share it with a friend or family member and see if they can guess the story!
Emoji Feelings Game: Gather a few friends or family members and play a game to express feelings using emojis. Write down different emotions on pieces of paper, like happy, sad, excited, or surprised. Take turns picking a paper and then acting out the emotion using only facial expressions, like an emoji. The others have to guess the emotion. This helps children understand how emojis can show feelings in messages.
Emoji Hunt: Go on an emoji hunt around your home or neighborhood! Look for objects or scenes that remind you of different emojis. For example, a flower in the garden could be like the flower emoji, or a pet cat could be like the cat emoji. Take pictures of these real-life “emojis” and create a collage. This activity helps children connect emojis with the world around them.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, it’s Doug. So my friend has these pillows, these smiley-face things that people send each other on their smartphones. You might know they’re called emojis. Well, someone named Pedro has a question about emojis. Let’s give him a call.
Hi Doug. Hi Pedro. I have a question for you. How were emojis created? That’s a great question! You might have seen emojis before. You know, these little smiley faces people use on phones? And they’re not always smiling; some of them show silly faces, and some are like a hand giving a thumbs-up, and some are even animals! Almost anything you can think of.
But Pedro asked such an interesting question. His question was, who created emojis? And that’s the thing. Emojis were created? You might not have thought about that before, but just like a lot of things in our lives, emojis didn’t always exist. Someone had to create them. So who created them and why?
Well, it turns out emojis were invented back in the late 1990s, when computers looked quite different, and your parents were probably kids then. Emojis were invented by a man named Shigetaka Kurita. Shigetaka is from Japan. In fact, the word ’emoji’ comes from Japanese. In Japanese, emoji means something like ‘picture word.’
Now, as an inventor, the reason Shigetaka Kurita came up with the idea of emojis is that he was trying to solve a problem. Now, what do you think it was? What problem do you think emojis solve? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
OK, you ready? Well, imagine if there were no emojis, and a person went to send their friend a message. For example, imagine someone asks their friend, “Want to work on our project after school today?” And then the friend responds like this, “Sure.” But wait, what does she mean, “sure”? I guess that means she wants to work on a project. Think about it, though. Does she mean “sure!” like she’s excited about it? Or “sure,” like she’s not really wanting to do this?
Typing or writing a message to someone might not be clear how that person feels. Compare that to when someone is talking to you in person. You can usually see and hear how excited someone is. But when you write or type something, you can’t hear someone’s voice, and you can’t see their face. So Shigetaka Kurita invented emojis to solve this problem. Emojis help people share how they’re feeling when writing or typing.
Another name for that is what we call tone. Tone isn’t what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it. When you’re speaking, you give tone to your words by doing things like changing your voice and your facial expressions. You do things like smiling to show you’re happy about something, or maybe looking nervous when you’re anxious, or frowning when you’re upset. But when you’re writing or typing, the tone can get lost. When someone reads what you wrote, they might hear your words in their head with a totally different tone than what you meant.
Emojis help solve this problem. They can show how you’re feeling. Like if you write “sure,” and you include a smiley-face emoji when you send it, then someone will know that you mean you’re excited. And there are emojis for just about any feeling you have, like an emoji for when you feel shy, an emoji for when you feel angry. There’s even an emoji for those times that you’re laughing so hard that you cry.
And emojis have become really popular. When they were first invented, there were only 200 emojis, all of them really simple in black and white. But now, there are over 1,000 emojis, colorful and detailed, covering all kinds of different feelings.
So, in summary, emojis didn’t always exist. They were invented by someone who wanted to solve the problem of sharing how we’re feeling over text. Now there are over 1,000 emojis used by people all over the world. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Pedro, for asking it.
Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: How can cats see in the dark? Why do our skeletons have so many bones? Or why do people carve pumpkins for Halloween? So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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