What's weird for me is that emojis are one of the things that make me feel distinctly old. I grew up with technology; I came of age using early chat apps like ICQ and learned how to type all the old emoticons. And now I don't even know how to find the emoji I want most of the time.
So, to me, emoji are one of the few things that truly represent a generation gap. (As opposed to the created-to-stoke-ire generation gap memes.) Not just knowing what they mean (seriously, a peach is impeachment? C'mon, even I know that a peach is a bum!) but knowing how to access and deploy them in different apps - Slack, Discord, iOS Messages, LINE, Facebook Messenger all use different methods of searching for and "typing" emojis and I find it so cumbersome that I often don't bother using them at all, even when I know that if I had just the right one my comment would be ðĨ.
Anyway, the plural of emoji is emoji except when it's emojis, so if nothing else, I'm glad I could clear that up. ðððą
Haha, I will use emoji and emojis interchangeably however I see fit! Thanks for sharing your perspective -- it can definitely be tricky to figure out which emojis are appropriate and when (I distinctly remember using ðŽ as a goofy smile for a few weeks until I realized people were reading it more as a grimace). And I always find it jarring when they pop up in work-related contexts, like emails from my boss. "Oh, we do that here? Ok, sure!"
I loved this piece! So clearly articulated the meta-use of emojis. As a '94 baby, someone who was on the internet pre Gen Z emojis (Like, I grew up with the simple emojis as well as the :3, -_-, o.O, o___o, ._....etc (I don't see these anymore)) and seeing the transition into the Gen Z uses of emojis (like ðĪ, ðĨš, ðŦ , ðïļ ð ðïļ) was definitely something that took adapting to. Around the time I got on Tiktok was when I started seeing how these emojis were actually used (but I think this was also around when they were released). Before the rise of Tiktok, I feel like pre-2020(?) ish, internet content & comments felt a lot more...straightforward. Like, people conveyed what they thought pretty directly (like, you could take the meaning for what they were literally saying). But the rise of Tiktok + new emojis, was the beginning of just seeing so much casual joking and non serious comments and use of emojis that was a cultural shift for me. For example, like if a video was romantic and cheesy, the top comment would be "going to throw myself off a building now" or "crying, vomiting rn". I feel like that's how emojis started becoming used too like, it's no longer the literal meaning of the emoji?? Idk how to explain. Also, another big emoji cultural shift moment was when people can TELL you're a millennial if you use the ð emoji and people would literally call you out in the comments for being a millennial. These days, I love being on Tiktok and reading the comment sections. It's hilarious and creative
What's weird for me is that emojis are one of the things that make me feel distinctly old. I grew up with technology; I came of age using early chat apps like ICQ and learned how to type all the old emoticons. And now I don't even know how to find the emoji I want most of the time.
So, to me, emoji are one of the few things that truly represent a generation gap. (As opposed to the created-to-stoke-ire generation gap memes.) Not just knowing what they mean (seriously, a peach is impeachment? C'mon, even I know that a peach is a bum!) but knowing how to access and deploy them in different apps - Slack, Discord, iOS Messages, LINE, Facebook Messenger all use different methods of searching for and "typing" emojis and I find it so cumbersome that I often don't bother using them at all, even when I know that if I had just the right one my comment would be ðĨ.
Anyway, the plural of emoji is emoji except when it's emojis, so if nothing else, I'm glad I could clear that up. ðððą
Haha, I will use emoji and emojis interchangeably however I see fit! Thanks for sharing your perspective -- it can definitely be tricky to figure out which emojis are appropriate and when (I distinctly remember using ðŽ as a goofy smile for a few weeks until I realized people were reading it more as a grimace). And I always find it jarring when they pop up in work-related contexts, like emails from my boss. "Oh, we do that here? Ok, sure!"
I loved this piece! So clearly articulated the meta-use of emojis. As a '94 baby, someone who was on the internet pre Gen Z emojis (Like, I grew up with the simple emojis as well as the :3, -_-, o.O, o___o, ._....etc (I don't see these anymore)) and seeing the transition into the Gen Z uses of emojis (like ðĪ, ðĨš, ðŦ , ðïļ ð ðïļ) was definitely something that took adapting to. Around the time I got on Tiktok was when I started seeing how these emojis were actually used (but I think this was also around when they were released). Before the rise of Tiktok, I feel like pre-2020(?) ish, internet content & comments felt a lot more...straightforward. Like, people conveyed what they thought pretty directly (like, you could take the meaning for what they were literally saying). But the rise of Tiktok + new emojis, was the beginning of just seeing so much casual joking and non serious comments and use of emojis that was a cultural shift for me. For example, like if a video was romantic and cheesy, the top comment would be "going to throw myself off a building now" or "crying, vomiting rn". I feel like that's how emojis started becoming used too like, it's no longer the literal meaning of the emoji?? Idk how to explain. Also, another big emoji cultural shift moment was when people can TELL you're a millennial if you use the ð emoji and people would literally call you out in the comments for being a millennial. These days, I love being on Tiktok and reading the comment sections. It's hilarious and creative