Teacher Discussion Forums

I understand such are called smileys or emoticons.
Young people these days seem to do more than those.
It seems that there are a lot of pictures prearranged,
particularly on the cellphone. e.g. a number of dots
under an airplane = rain.
It's not smiling. It doesn't show any emotion.
Could we still call them 'smileys' or 'emoticons'?
Or:
1. pictograph
2. picture word
3. pictorial symbol
4. any other common term for such a new type of symbols?

Thank you.

It's quite normal for the name of an object not to retain its original meaning.

For example, a 'computer', does more than compute. If I remember correctly, the Turkish word for computer is bilgisayar, which means 'knows how to count'.