Tears of joy emoji might be experiencing a renaissance
The laughing crying emoji might be coming back into vogue.
According to an Emojipedia analysis of over 2.16 billion tweets, the face with tears of joy emoji 😂 has returned to its spot as Twitter's number one emoji by the slimmest of margins, just barely surpassing the loudly crying face 😭.
This doesn't necessarily mean that the face with tears of joy emoji is cool again, though. The change is largely due to the loudly crying face experiencing a steep drop in popularity in January, from 1.93 billion uses in December to 1.78 billion uses in the month. Thats a total decrease of about 150 million uses. The face with tears of joy emoji only increased 20 million uses from December to January.
You May Also Like
The emoji been going through different phases online over the past few years, being labeled as "cringe" and a communication tool used predominately by Millennials. It was released with the first-ever set of emoji back in 2011, and was the most popular emoji from 2019 to 2021. It's no wonder that it had an absolute chokehold on Millennials.
Then Gen Z came along, and created their own way to communicate online, with ever-changing combinations of the loudly crying face 😭, the skull 💀, the pleading eyes 🥺, and even the chair emoji 🪑.
But not all users follow the cultural guidelines set up by the youngest generation, so the face with tears of joy has continued to top the charts despite its cringe factor. And, now, some young people use the face ironically, too, which could help that uptick.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Following the crying face emoji, the top emoji used on Twitter were: sparkles ✨, rolling on the floor laughing 🤣, pleading face 🥺, red heart ❤️, folded hands 🙏, smiling face with heart eyes 😍, smiling face with hearts 🥰, and smiling face with smiling eyes 😊.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that emoji evolve just as any other tool in our lexicon. Congrats to the tears of joy emoji, which has held onto its spot as one of the most used emoji for so many years. 😂 🏆 🥳
More emoji
Stephen Colbert has some serious beef with the people who make emoji
Say hello to Yats: Why investors are paying thousands to 'own' emoji
We probably won't get a bisexual pride flag emoji anytime soon. Here's why.
Topics X/Twitter
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
