You may not realize it, but you could be carrying around some modern art. To see it, all you have to do is look at your phone, or you can check out the Museum of Modern Art's new "emoji" exhibition in New York.
The museum added the original set of 176 emoji to its permanent collection. The pictograms made their debut in 1999 for Japanese mobile provider NTT Docomo. The simple images quickly gained popularity as a way to express emotions on the limited screen space of mobile devices.
A collection specialist at the museum says the designs changed the behavior of people around the world.
◆check out 調べる、行く、出かける
◆Museum of Modern Art's ニューヨーク近代美術館（ＭｏＭＡ） [the]
◆pictogram 絵文字、象形文字
◆make one's debut お目見えする、デビューする
◆as a way to ～する手段として
