The expression pack originated from the smiley face symbol invented by an American. With the passage of time, various expression packages such as facial expressions, smiling faces, graffiti, graphic narration and dynamic pictures have been derived. Starting from 20 14, the founders of emoji search engine even designated July 17 every year as "World Emoji Pack Day". The real popularity of Yan characters stems from the widespread popularity of social software. Users can not only use their own colors and characters, but also publish their own colors and characters. Social software has gradually changed people's communication mode from face-to-face communication to online communication, and more and more young people are getting used to "puzzles" in virtual communication.
Expression packs can be regarded as an important supplement to online text communication. Compared with face-to-face communication, it is more difficult for people to perceive each other's state or mood in online text dialogue, and sending facial words can just make up for this shortcoming. When people want to express negative emotions or express regret for others, sending appropriate words can not only express their dissatisfaction, but also alleviate the embarrassment of the other party when receiving information. Emoji packs can also enrich the details of words in a labor-saving way. For example, the states that can represent laughter in WeChat facial expressions are "simple smile", "yi tooth", "cute", "snicker" and "smile". When users want to convey happy feelings, they don't have to think about which words are more accurate, just send an expression.
In addition, emoticons can act as a "joint code" for the same circle or intergenerational group. Professor Peng Lan, a new media scholar, once wrote: Expression packs can be used as labels to distinguish generations and groups. The more intimate or like-minded people talk, the more concrete and vivid the expression pack will be, which also explains why the lower level uses less expression packs for the upper level or the lower level for the elders. It's like the old people don't know how young people dance disco, and young people don't know how old people dance square dance. Different groups have their own communication codes and cultural symbols.
The expression packs used by young people are often funny, sarcastic or playful, while the expression packs for middle-aged and elderly people are famous for their quietness, peace and positive energy, which also leads to the cognitive differences of different generations on the same expression. For example, middle-aged and elderly people generally think that the "smile" expression in WeChat is a happy smile, while young people think that it is a fake smile with ridicule and high cold feeling, because it looks like expressions such as "sadness" and "goodbye" and looks like a smile after emotional depression.