Think of them as symbols that represent how the sender would like the receiver to emotionally receive the message. It's also a youth culture Shibboleth, especi

Think of them as symbols that represent how the sender would like the receiver to emotionally receive the message. It's also a youth culture Shibboleth, especially with the non-intuitive factual icons. Kids these days are just so, like, random, man, and geezers like us just don't get it. (But emojis are still useful -- they're a weak version of voice tone or body language that is also quirky, expressive if you know what you're doing, and keeps old people like us out.)