Let’s face it: emojis is the thriving language of social media. Personalities, status updates, and photo captions are now never complete without the witty touch of emojis. With a whole dictionary explaining the fine line and lingo of this millennial keyboard, it’s easy to get lost in translation.
To help you wade through these colorful and ever-evolving emoticons, here are the top emojis every social media normie has got under their sleeves:
1. Face With Tears of Joy Emoji
Ah, our classic LOL has now evolved to the most versatile and charming emojis of all time. With the face with tears of joy emoji in your arsenal, you automatically have your go-to icon of all time. Rated as one of the most popular amongst emoji choices, this icon caps of a funny experience, entertaining story, and overall a good tweet. Classic!
2. Hundred Points Emoji
As the great Gina Linetti of Brooklyn Nine-Nine would say, an exceptional person is the human form of this emoji. The 100 emoji is your best friend when you want to express perfection, accuracy, or your personal stamp of approval. Keeping it short, but keeping it a hundred.
3. Loudly Crying Face Emoji
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the loudly crying face emoji. Now besides the obvious fact that this emoji encapsulates utter devastation (and sometimes, ironically used over the most amusing things!) the loudly crying face earns its spot because of complete relatability.
Horrible traffic? Loudly crying face. Hated that last episode? Loudly crying face. Something incredibly cute? Loudly crying face. Absolute props for versatility on this one.
4. Face with Rolling Eyes Emoji
Nothing says shade more than the face with the rolling eyes emoji – and that’s probably why it earns a spot in our list as well. It’s fun to throw this around whenever you feel like, as the kids would call it: “sooo done with you”. Associated with the cancel culture, the rolling eyes emoji presents itself with a kick.
5. Smiling Face with Heart Eyes Emoji
Love at first sight? More like love at first heart-eyed emoji! This popular emoji is probably so common on your Instagram timeline and something you’re familiar with as well. This “I’m in love” emoji is perfect for that breathtaking sunset, your favorite bowl of pasta, and most likely that selfie you’ve been eyeing.
6. Fire Emoji
Speaking of Instagram emojis, this one has most likely ended up on your timeline as well. The fire emoji is, of course, symbolizing it’s very nature of a burning flame. But translating it to social media lingo is another thing entirely.
You’ll probably find it next to the smiling face with heart eyes emoji, maybe the hundred points emoji. If you see this, congratulations: it means you’re lit! (Not to be confused with literally being up in flames.)
7. Folded Hands Emoji
Is it a high-five or a prayer? The folded hands emoji could be the most debatable emoji at some point in time, but either way, we’ve got to agree that it’s pretty usable in our standards.
The debate was allegedly clarified by Keith Broni, senior emoji researcher at the website Emojipedia, by saying its origin is a folded hand and not a high-five. The more you know!
8. Distraught Face
At 5 PM after a long day, there probably isn’t another emoji as relatable as the distraught face. Characterized by the closed eyes, crinkled brows and frown, this emoji is probably all of us when we hit the last straw on a bad day. With that, it earns its spot on our list of basic emojis you need to know and you’ll always need some on the really bad days.
9. Thinking Face
A lot of things on social media would probably require a second thought and this emoji is the most adorable depiction of it. Save it for a conspiracy theory post, or just that one random realization in the shower you’ll probably tweet about.
10. Red Heart
Our arsenal of emojis would not be complete without the final icon: the red heart. If emojis could be grouped into classic icons, no doubt the red heart would top the group. Used to display love, appreciation, and overall a positive note on online posts, this emoji continues to win the hearts of its netizens.
In the end, emojis have become so popular as they evolved as an outlet of personal expression. These fun icons are a staple in online storytelling so much so that they have developed into a new language with different unique meanings.
Emojis continue to represent social media culture and thrive in its inner world. We celebrate this representation of new media culture with new emoticons joining the roster, year by year taking the world by storm.
How about you, what’s your favorite emoji?