Some emojis can show your age AND cause offence

15 October 2022

The use of certain emojis is upsetting some people, with the thumbs up, red heart, and tears of joy, among pictograms causing the most offense.

Sending a thumbs-up can be seen as passive aggressive and even confrontational, according to Gen Z who claim they feel attacked whenever it is used. Whether the chat is informal, between friends or at work the icon appears to have a very different, ‘rude’ meaning for the younger generation. A 24-year-old on Reddit summed up the Gen Z argument, saying it is best ‘never used in any situation’ as it is ‘hurtful’.

From what I can tell though, this is more a conversation about the use of emojis in professional or workplace settings, where I would have thought their use in general would be limited.

I’ve never used a heart emoji in anything other than personal communications, but I do use thumbs up from time to time. Here its usage is intended as a sign-off, a way of saying “all good, understood”, as the finer points of whatever was being discussed have already been hashed out.

I’ll stick to “all good, good bye, now go get lost and leave me alone” from now on…