We barely use them anymore, they scoffed.
To them, many emojis are like overenthusiastic dance moves at weddings: reserved for awkward millennials.
And they use them all wrong anyway, my cohort from generation Z added earnestly.
With3,353 charactersavailable and 5 billion sent each day, emojis are now a significant language system.
When the emoji database is updated, it usually reflects the needs of the time.
This latest update, for instance, features a new vaccine syringe and more same-sex couples.
But if my undergraduates are anything to go by, emojis are also a generational battleground.
[Read:How do you build a pet-friendly gadget?
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Research can help explain these spats over emojis.
Previously, the syringe emoji suggested blood extraction.
In 2011,Instagramtracked the uptake of emojis through user messages, watching how ?
eclipsed :-) in just a few years.
The Unicode Consortium now meets each year to consider new types of emoji, including emojis that support inclusivity.
In 2015, a new range of skin colors was added to existing emojis.
Bitter boomers?
Not everyone has been thrilled by the rise of emoji.
as nourishing as a human smile.
Given these findings, its likely that those who reject emojis actually impoverish their language capabilities.
Creative criticism
The conflict between gen Z and millennials, meanwhile, emerges from confused meanings.
Many emojis have more than one meaning: a literal meaning, and a suggested one, for instance.
Subversive, rebellious meanings are often created by the young: todays gen Z.
Theaubergine?
is a classic example of how an innocent vegetable has had its meaning creatively repurposed by young people.
is an emerging example of the innocent-turned-dirty emoji canon, which already boasts alarge corpus.
These three emojis will also hit iPhones with Apples latest update.
Their meaning is yet to be decided.Emojipedia/Apple
And it doesnt stop there.
The stage is set for a new round of intergenerational mockery.
