I really like them as dumb little “reactions” in chats (as in: emojis other can attach to a message) but, for longer, more thoughtful text posts, they usually distract from the content IME.
I also don’t like how they’re usually, well I don’t know how to describe it but: Overly emotional. Your crying emoji is a good example; you’re not actually crying an ocean because you miss emojis, you’re just a little sad about it (I assume).
This “always taking everyting to the extreme” really annoys me about our current society. There is no moderation anymore; it feels like you must either be extremely happy or extremely sad/angry/whatever. You can no longer be “a little sad about it”, you must show that you’re crying a river over it or whatever.
I think that may be one of the reasons why I prefer emoticons. They don’t have that problem as much as you can’t easily express extreme emotions with them. :'( is about as bad a “crying” usually gets for example and when someone writes xD, you know they’re taking a piss.