Bad news for people who frequently use the emoji (表情符号): It is no longer cool.
In recent weeks, two generations have been debating in videos and comments on Tik Tok over the symbols of millennial (千禧一代) culture that are now considered uncool by Generation Z (born after 1996). The symbols include the popular laughing crying emoji that some millennials (born in the 1980s), including me, use hundreds of times a day, or more.
"Face with Tears of Joy", the official name for the laughing crying emoji, is currently the most-used emoji on Emojitracker, a website that shows real-time emoji use on Twitter.
"What's wrong with the laughing crying emoji?" one user asked in a Tik Tok comment. Another responded, "It's so off." In a different video, a woman says she's cut back on using it after learning kids don't.
"I use everything but the laughing crying emoji," 21-year-old Walid Mohammed told CNN Business. "I stopped using it recently because I saw older people using it, like my mom, my older sisters and just older people in general."
For many Generation Zers, the emoji has become a popular replacement for conveying laughter. It's the visual version of the slang phrase "I'm dead" or "I'm dying", which means something is very funny. Other acceptable choices—the emoji officially called "Loudly Crying Face", or just writing "lol" (laughing out loud) or "lmao".
"Tears of Joy was a victim of its own success," said Gretchen McCulloch, the author of "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language". "If you express digital laughter for years and years in the same way, it starts to feel insincere. . . It gets worn out through continued use," she said. That's why Generation Zers may be looking to fresh and novel ways to signal they're laughing in different ways.
"Older generations tend to use emojis literally while younger people get more creative," said Jeremy Burge, the chief emoji officer of Emojipedia, an emoji dictionary website. Generation Zers told CNN Business they like to assign their own meanings to emoji, which then spreads to others, often through social media.
