WIDELY celebrated on twitter and other social-media websites, July 17th was declared to be World Emoji Day by Emojipedia, a website that catalogues the icons. Once used only by geeks sending text messages to each other, they are now immensely popular. Some now claim that emoji may be the fastest-spreading language on the internet. The BBC, a British broadcaster, has started to summarise its weekly news using strings of emoji to reach a younger audience, and classic novels such as Moby Dick are now being translated into the icons. But the little pictures that make up emoji are confusing for many. So what are they and what do they actually mean?
