World Emoji Day Is Making Us Seriously Reflect On What Our Most Used Emojis Say About Us

Happy World Emoji Day everybody! While musing on the rise of the emoji language, we got to chatting about what our emoji use reveals about us.

A quick scout at our top three most recently used icons painted a pretty bleak picture of our maturity levels. The more refined members of the team (ahem Bill!) claimed to never use emojis, however, the Whatsapp never forgets and he was immediately called out by deputy editor Meg who could cite three separate incidents of emoji use. Ha. You are not better than us, Bill. She has the receipts. Bill’s emojis of choice were the thumbs up, the winky face (switswoo) and randomly a pumpkin. Bill appears to use emojis sparingly and grudgingly, perhaps suggestive of a person who wants to believe they are better than emojis, but the fact is he is still using them.

Beauty writer, Holly favours the crying laughing face, the symbol for heartbreak and the manicure emoji. Holly’s interests (laughing hysterically?and playing with beauty products) are clearly represented here, while the heartbreak emoji suggests a deeper well of sorrow lurking under her happy-go-lucky emoji-using veneer. U OK Hun?

My top three were the thumbs up, the droplets and the monkey covering its eyes. My totally unbiased opinion says that this makes me one of the most accomplished speakers of emoji the world has ever known.

Books editor, Jen feels her top three perfectly sum her up and as her desk-mate, I can confirm that pizza, chocolate and worried face are pretty apt alright.

Content creator, Niamh exclusively uses the flame icon for all her emoji needs, which is a little unnerving in response to simple messages such “how’s it going?”. With Niamh it’s flaming. Always.

According to a study published earlier this year, when we see emojis in digital messaging it gives us a deeper connection than pure text. According to Linda Kaye the psychologist who led the study, “Different regions of the brain light up when you’re looking at emojis compared to not looking at emojis.”

Kaye also found possible links between certain personality traits and emoji use, including the finding that people who use emojis tend to be more agreeable (are you reading this, Bill?). According to Kaye this “makes sense as these are probably people in the real world who are more smiley to people.”