Gen Z is growing up with emoji as their second language—or even their first. Today, pre-K kids are using phones, and some of the first messages that they read and send are emoji-filled missives. According to an informal survey of parents, many kids ages three to five send “elaborate” emoji-only texts, and their use of emojis becomes more sophisticated as they age up. But their emoji-exchanges might be giving them a different relationship to reading and writing: that it’s first-and-foremost about connecting with people they care about. (Wired)
