Ahead of Sunday’s World Emoji Day, a new global survey shows we’re all hooked on the little pictures, but can be fuzzy on what they actually mean.
The poll of 9,400 employees all over the world, which was sponsored by Duolingo and Slack, to evaluate how they’re used in the workplace, revealed Americans more commonly use emoji in everyday conversation — and as compared to their global counterparts, they feel a message without one is somehow lacking.
Seventy-one percent of Americans felt that way, compared to 57% of people in other countries, in fact.
Some of the most commonly used emoji are often used incorrectly, the survey shows. A quarter of those surveyed said they’ve used the “loudly crying” emoji with that for “tears of joy.”
Think of the problems that could cause.
Thirty-eight percent of the Americans polled said the “skull” emoji means death — but 34% use it to show that something’s funny, as in “I’m dead.”
Not surprisingly, 31% of Gen Z and 24% of millennials admitted their emoji use has been misunderstood.
Adding to the confusion, emoji mean different things to different people depending on where you live: the “kissy face” emoji is generally thought of as being romantic in the States, but it’s purely platonic in countries like Japan and India.
Further adding to the confusion, a whole lot of Americans use the smiley face emoji sarcastically.
Which brings us to the eggplant emoji. Fourteen percent say they’ve personally confused what it means.
Twenty-one percent of the Americans polled insisted they did so only to represent the fruit, not its anatomical analogue.
On the other hand, 34% say they’re using it when they’re feeling flirty.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.