> it's an unnecessary noise and adds nothing of value. Emoji invented for the purpose of augmenting communication for Japanese mobile phone users in the 90s, s

> it's an unnecessary noise and adds nothing of value. Emoji invented for the purpose of augmenting communication for Japanese mobile phone users in the 90s, starting with NTT DoCoMo's i-Mode (a kind of competitor to WAP). Pictures, especially coloured ones added later, add a wealth of information to a language like Japanese where phrases can only be shortened by so much before becoming nonsense due to the writing system (not to mention a smaller character limit per message). Its purpose is communication. It was made for communication. It is communication. If you refuse to see the communicative value in it, that's your own issue, nobody else's.