But emojis simply augment our emotions in wonderful pictorial form. It expedites our conversation in an age where we probably communicate at least in triplicate scale (hello, 1,500 Facebook friends). At least for me, that communication means different strata of the same ~20 close friends, and emojis are a godsend, substituting for "lol"or (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ in quick fashion.
In my experience, here are just a few common emojis that those in my demographic particularly enjoy using. The names are from Emojipedia.
🔥
Fire. Starting with the most obvious, the LIT emoji is the poster child of the emoji-generation. As such, it's also the most commonly appropriated by adults and companies in a futile attempts to "appeal to the younger generation." Regardless, the emoji still maintains its relevance as a testament to the hotness of food, people, or temperature.
👍
Thumbs up. This is a ubiquitously universal sign of agreement and/or support thanks to Facebook. You can't go wrong with it. Although, I've begun to associate this symbol as a symbol of lackluster effort or enthusiasm because of its one-click overuse.
😍
Smiling face with heart-eyes. This is pretty self-explanatory and also another cop-out of a selection. I'm pretty sure everyone owns this in plush form, next to the poop emoji. In my experience, it's used as a sufficient reaction to cute and/or pretty things, especially animal gifs.
😂
Face with tears of joy. This is typically used in exuberant laughter. However, I've also witnessed it being used ironically—true to all expressions that tears can indicate—like "Me thinking about all the work I have to do tonight 😂."
👀
Eyes. "I see you," this emoji says. This also might be an appropriate response to someone you catch on your Facebook feed sharing something they should not. Alternatively, in the presence of attention-worthy content, this also signals, "You've caught my interest."
🙌
Raising hands. These hands are used often in light of good news. "Praise," says these hands, "that school's cancelled because of the snow."
🙄🤦♀️💁♀️
Face with rolling eyes, woman facepalming, woman tipping hand. The face signals sarcasm or annoyance. The facepalm expresses further annoyance, culminating in woman tipping hand's "I guess this is my life now." These emojis represent the ever-growing cynicism among our generation.
🙃
Upside-down face. A perennial favorite and perpetual emotion of the graduate-school life. It represents all things negative that we have to live with, ranging from "I missed the deadline for my homework" to "my cat ran away."
👅💦🍆🍑
Tongue, sweat droplets, eggplant. Classics. Just be aware that these are commonly used...innuendos. Use judiciously and knowingly.
Emojis are great. They can be as ambiguous as they can be straightforward. That openness to interpretation is a fun tension to play with, but ironically, emojis also bridge that communication gap where words are just not enough to express our true feelings. After all, actions speak louder than words, right?
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