This is where the melting face emoji becomes relevant. The face, with a half-smile even as it melts into a puddle, is one of 37 new emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium this year. Other new emojis include a saluting face, dotted line face, and a disco ball. These emojis will be released gradually over the next year. The melting face emoji has already gained popularity on social media, with many seeing it as a symbol of the significant psychological impact of the coronavirus pandemic. One Twitter user described the melting smiley face as a representation of the current pandemic mood, while others saw it as a symbol of climate anxiety. Another user predicted that the emoji would be used frequently in the era of climate change apocalypse. The melting face emoji was created in 2019 by Jennifer Daniel and Neil Cohn, who bonded over their love for visual language. Daniel, who goes by they/them pronouns, is a creative director at Google and a member of the emoji subcommittee for Unicode, while Cohn is an associate professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands specializing in cognition and communication. Cohn's research on representations of emotions in Japanese Visual Language, particularly the concept of "paperification" where characters in manga turn into paper when embarrassed, caught Daniel's attention. They realized there was no existing emoji for this visual convention, so they decided to create one, eventually landing on the melting face emoji as a more visceral representation. This idea is also sometimes depicted as a solid turning into liquid. Cohn noted that many of the best face emojis draw from conventions in comics or manga, as seen in the original emoji set. In 1999, the first emojis were created by a Japanese artist named Shigetaka Kurita, who was inspired by manga. The emojis were created to make text-based communication easier, especially due to the 250-character limit on messages sent through NTT Docomo's mobile internet service. The original set of 176 emojis designed by Kurita is now housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Despite no longer having character restrictions, emojis continue to be a quick and flexible way to convey emotions, with the melting face being a prime example. From a literal perspective, emojis can be used to represent physical discomfort, such as the feeling of a broken air conditioner. However, they can also be used figuratively to express emotions like embarrassment, exhaustion, and sarcasm. According to Cohn, emojis tap into a shared knowledge base of metaphors, like the concept of melting, which can be applied to a variety of emotions. Emojis are designed to be versatile and can be interpreted in multiple ways, much like words can be used flexibly. Visual language is more flexible than words and can convey ideas that reality cannot. For example, the concept of a "melting face" can evoke various emotions and interpretations. Emojis themselves may not hold deep meaning, but it is the way people use them that gives them significance. A graphic designer named Erik Carter shared his interpretation of the melting face image he created. Carter mentioned that a lot of people may be experiencing a sense of despair due to issues such as climate change or lack of action from the government. He expressed that at times it may seem like the only option is to smile as we watch things deteriorate.