Notion is perpetuating this idea that it’s cute to put distracting colorful symbols in text.
Emojis that are more for adding flavor to conversations would be more stuff like: :shrug:, :thumbs up:, or :D. Though even there the thumbs up could potentially be used as a quick signal of approval in some way in tickets or documentation or whatever else. Visual aids are honestly great! I think they should be embraced more, though not going too far because little aids are helpful but tons and tons of stuff all over the place can get messy. As with pretty much everything, moderation is extremely helpful.
EDIT: HN seems to have eaten my emojis? Adding in text bits to the original post to indicate what I was trying to use.
This allowed me to rapidly scroll to the bottom of the page and parse the topics instantly in my head. Especially since they had a "legend" at the beginning in the overview section.
It's not as if they add :) and :P everywhere. They simply made the choice to skip custom icons that every single sites out there use and instead use a common set of icons (emojis).
As more and more apps and service use those, this make parsing those page very quick. I know that if I see a "globe with meridians" emoji, it's going to be about the internet, etc. That way, you don't have to learn a new set of icons for every site you go to.
You could probably hide them using a client side script like Stylish.
I happily use emojis when sending texts, making FB posts and the like, but I wouldn't put one in a comment here even if HN supported them.
I don't care about the "professional" aspect the OP mentioned, simply that they are cognitive junk that get in the way of reading a document.
That said, I also agree with the comment by camdez parallel to yours: "If that's the biggest problem, things must be going pretty well."
