Picture languages have all evolved into phonetic alphabets, because picture languages simply do not work. For example, you cannot look up a picture in a dictionary. You cannot look for it in an index. You cannot type it in, you have to search for it by scrolling through pages of them. You cannot tell if an icon for a duck is meant to represent a duck or a bird.

And where does one stop in adding pictures?

I'm always interested in seeing how logographic writing systems solve issues with input, encoding, indexing, and the like.

When I text my Japanese friends, we tend to use a lot of emoji and (in-app) stickers. I think emoji have such a hold in Japan because 1. there's a big "cute" culture there, and 2. Japanese language is largely icon-based (logographic) already.

When I see emoji all over Reddit comments, Github READMEs, and code docs, I feel a frustrating culture mismatch. I'm glad HN strips them. But, there are situations where I use emoji and like them a lot.