Emoji Survey Data Offers Tips for Dating and Communication

Bad news for eggplant users

Emoji
Different emojis are shown on a tablet.
Jörg Carstensen/picture alliance via Getty Images

In the last decade, emojis have inspired films both fictional and documentary in nature. They’ve sparked conversations about their relationship to art and changed the way many people around the world communicate. And they’ve given us a new holiday, World Emoji Day, which occurred this year on Saturday. All of which begs the question: how have people been using emojis in the last year?

Writing at Hyperallergic, Sarah Rose Sharp has a good overview of a recent report on global emoji use. That report, the Global Emoji Trend Report 2021, comes via Adobe and offers a lot to ponder in terms of how people communicate — and, perhaps, what emoji users think about the rest of us.

One of the big takeaways from the report? If you don’t use emojis, people who do might think less of you. Sharp writes that two-thirds of emoji users think that “people who use emoji are friendlier, funnier, and cooler than those who don’t.”

That also has greater implications on certain levels — notably, the survey also points out that many emoji users are grateful for the way emojis let them work around language barriers.

The survey also contains some useful information on what emoji to use — and to avoid — when dating and flirting. The top three emoji that survey respondents found made people more likable involved hearts and faces; the top three that had the reverse effect included the now-ubiquitous eggplant and peach emoji. Could these survey results change some of your texting habits? They just might.

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