Ah, emojis – where would we be without them? They’ve become a staple feature in our everyday chat and shorthand for the entire spectrum of human emotions – even some we didn’t know we had.
From the all-time classic winky to the cheeky monkey, the sticky-out-tongue face and the haplessly romantic heart-eye emoji, these digital deities have become a universal language – and to prove it, the Oxford English Dictionary even named the “Face with Tears of Joy”, AKA the lol emoji, its word of the year in 2015.
Defined as a “small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication” the word originally comes from the Japanese “e”, meaning picture and “moji”, meaning character.
From their humble origins in the late 1990’s (shout-out to those old enough to remember the good old days of MSN Messenger and the “high five”, “hug” and somewhat random farm animal emoticons) emojis have gained cult status in today’s digital world.
According to recent figures released by Facebook, over 60 million emojis are sent daily on the social media site and a whopping 5 billion on Messenger. Of these, the “Face with Tears of Joy” was the most popular.
The symbols have become so popular in fact, that there’s even a World Emoji Day in which you can cast your vote for the most popular character, and an epic new Emoji movie starring the infamous smileys.
Cynics may lament the emoji as contributing to the demise of the written word, encouraging laziness and dumbing us all down – we just think they’re fun.
Love them or loathe them, emojis aren’t going anywhere. They transcend language, culture and age (yes, even your nan knows how to use them now), they express the inexpressible, get you out tricky situations (cue the “just kidding!” winkey face) and have pretty much replaced speech on dating apps and WhatsApp to become the lingua franca of flirting.
As emojis develop digitally, with new symbols and features popping up almost every day, they’re also becoming more culturally and socially inclusive, challenging gender stereotypes (you can now find women body builders, forensics and constructions workers) and include a range of skin colours for most character icons.
The latest homage to the emoji world is online slot EmotiCoins. From providers Microgaming, this 5-reel game
combines everything you could want in a slot – with some cheeky extra bonus features and prizes thrown into the mix.
You don’t have to be an emoji-enthusiast to enjoy the game but if you are, this slot is your Nirvana.
Featuring all your favourite faces including the blowing-kiss emoji, cool-sunglasses-wearing emoji and, of course, good old smiley emoji himself, this slot boasts impressive graphics, vivid visuals and an upbeat soundtrack that’s bound to put a smile on your face (big-winning bonuses like the Free Spin awarding Wild Blast and the brilliant LOL Scatter feature won’t hurt either).
Play the sassy slot on NetBet today and you’ll get to take advantage of the exciting EmotiCoins promotion. All you have to do is play the game in Real Mode between 14th and 22nd August and you’ll be entered into a prize draw with the chance to bag a share of £10,000 in cash prizes! Check it out here.
NetBet’s incredible promotion will leave you grinning from ear to ear – hold on… is that a new emoji?
