Whether we like it or not we are surrounded by emoji. They appear in politics, movies, drug deals, even our sex lives, high profile lawsuits, and much more. However, emoji's impact has never been fully explored in full.
In the new book “Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji” Keith Houston follows emoji from its birth in 1990s Japan, traces its western explosion in the 2000s, and considers emoji’s ever-expanding lexicon.
For Houston emoji are a form of information technology, this is what he works with in his day job and all his previous books. Like “Shady Characters,” “The Book,” and “Empire of the Sum” all delve into information technologies of one kind or another. Despite his work on the history of topography, emoji were a mystery to him. “Face with Tears of Joy” tells the whole story of emoji for the first time.
