Can't get emoticons to work?

[AC Question]

I finally and reluctantly moved into the 21st century and got the Alcatel One Touch Evolve 2 phone with unl calls and texting, no data. (Not sure if that matters for my question here.) I'm trying to use emojis in my texts. The emoji prompt shows up in both the Android and Google keyboards when I hold Enter, but the emojis won't insert into the chat line.

As long as I'm here, why can't I send photos? Does this phone not have MMS capabilities? It's supposed to, but maybe I need data for that? I'm ignorant of this stuff.