I am an emoji scrooge. I’m very stingy with them, a real smiley miser. I groan when I see a string of them in a group chat. I send them only to my sister, mother, grandma and – in very, very ...

The symbol is part of "I Am A Witness," a new campaign that uses emoji to help kids call out bullying. The symbol, which combines an eye with a speech bubble, is meant to connote awareness and action.

All of which is to say: The 3,000-year-old tilde might want to consider rebranding itself as Invisible Man With Twirled Mustache. I t’s easy to dismiss emoji. They are, at first glance, ridiculous.