Different people like different things. 1337-speak and obscene levels of abbreviation largely came into being as SMS and text in-game chat were popular because, for a lot of people, spelling out words was much slower (or costly). The former mostly faded whereas the latter is still useful for twitter and people who actually still do SMS due to restrictions
Emoji (and emoticons before them) are similar. It is a way to convey an emotion or have a bit of fun in a concise manner. Some people like to type "That is hilarious". Others will type "LMFAO". And others still will put a pacman that is laughing. All convey the same message just in a different way.
Different people like different things. 1337-speak and obscene levels of abbreviation largely came into being as SMS and text in-game chat were popular because, for a lot of people, spelling out words was much slower (or costly). The former mostly faded whereas the latter is still useful for twitter and people who actually still do SMS due to restrictions
Emoji (and emoticons before them) are similar. It is a way to convey an emotion or have a bit of fun in a concise manner. Some people like to type "That is hilarious". Others will type "LMFAO". And others still will put a pacman that is laughing. All convey the same message just in a different way.