Of the vast numbers of existing emojis, most are unnecessary. Why do heart emojis need to come in a dozen different colours- do the colours even signify anything? Why do emojis need to come in different genders and skin colours (isn’t the default yellow meant to be universal)? Various random things (food items, sports, places, professions etc.) have emojis representing them, but others don’t. Searching for that one oddly specific pictogram by which to express yourself must be inefficient compared to simply using words, especially since it’s not guaranteed that the specific emoji exists. Also, it is particularly perplexing that some people express themselves in words, and then embellish the text with emojis that mean the same thing they’ve written. Isn’t this redundant?

The design of emojis is not aesthetically pleasing. The oversimplified graphics and bright colours are obnoxious and childish. When emojis are being used alongside text, they clash with it and bring down the overall appearance of the message. It’s difficult to take someone seriously in an online discussion if they use emojis because of the kitsch graphics.

There are several better alternatives to emojis when a tone indicator is required. Emoticons allow for creativity (you can’t do things like :)))))) or :\] with emojis) instead of forcing you to use pre-made graphics, and can represent more varied and nuanced emotions (emojis can’t show the difference between -\_- and .\_. and :/ for example). They also re-use existing characters which is more efficient than creating a different graphic for every expression, and allows for easier customisation. Emoticons look elegant and complement text rather than clashing with it. Other tone indicators include: tOgGlE cAsE; fonts e.g. *italic*, **bold**, v̶̯̉ỏ̶͙͎̩͂̚ī̴͙̞̺͊d̸̠̈͐̎ ̶̛̪̇t̸̬̩̕͘͝e̵͙͈͇̚͝x̸̝͕͎̓t̴̮͊͝ ; punctuation e.g. ellipsis; combinations of punctuation marks; abbreviations e.g. lmao, /s.

In conclusion, emojis are unnecessary, and their main role as tone indicators is better fulfilled by emoticons and various other alternatives.