A study in emojis

Adobe just dropped its 2022 US Emoji Trend Report, and it’s got some juicy details on how we feel about these little picture characters that originated in Japan.

🤔 So, how do we feel about them?... The survey was taken by 5,000 emoji users across the US. And ever since reading the following stat from it, we can’t get Billy Madison’s voice out of our head: 73% of respondents believe that adding emoji to your messages makes you cooler, friendlier, and funnier (“all the coooooool kids are doing it…”).

Though to be clear, not every emoji makes you cool. But never fear – you’re about to be in the know. Here’s some emoji tips for when flirting or dating, according to science.

• To become more likable: Use 😘, 🥰 , or 😍
• To become less likable: Use 💩, 😠, or 🍆
• To elicit confusion: Use 🤠, 🍒, or 🙃, otherwise known as the most misunderstood emoji. (Bonus points for using all three in the same sentence.)

🌎 Zoom out: The process for adding new emoji is overseen by the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit org that ensures there’s a unique code for every character, in every language, in every program, on every platform, so users and programmers can develop content in their native language.

Unicode’s Version 15.0, containing 20 new emoji characters, went live this past Tuesday.

+The generational divide: Peep the top five most frequently-used emojis by generation below. (Can confirm: parents LOVE a good ‘ole thumbs up.)