Emojis 😊💩🍆

The hieroglyphs seem to hold a lot of secrets about Ancient Egyptians. What do emojis say about us? What on earth is their story?

Emojis originate in the notebooks of 1970’s Japanese schoolgirls obsessed with adding cute illustrations between words.

Their story ends in boardroom meetings in California where the emojis that we are all allowed, and the ones we aren’t, are decided.

What a strange journey for a form of communication to take. It must all mean something…but what? 

Today’s guest is Philip Seargeant a lecturer in applied linguistics at the Open University and author of The Emoji Revolution: the technology shaping the future of communication.

Produced by Freddy Chick, edited by Lewis Mason, senior producer Charlotte Long

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