Prev Next 1 of Previous Next Unicode, that is the system that encodes all the characters of what we once called telewriting (before it became writing and that's it, in fact), has over three thousand emojis. According to Emojipedia, five billion are sent every day via Facebook Messenger alone. On iOS, Apple's operating system for mobile devices, the most used of all is? , followed by ❤️,? And ?. Every year new emojis are designed and added, to expand the number of objects and feelings we can express without using letters and to give representation to more and more people (from disabled sportsmen to women with headscarves).
Despite being so ingrained in the lives of hundreds of millions of people – even those who don't use them, as they supposedly receive them – there are still some misunderstandings about the meaning of some emojis. Sometimes misunderstandings are deliberate: according to Emojipedia, in fact, only 7 percent of the people who use it? he uses it to indicate a peach. The remainder uses it for other things: mainly for the butt, but also to talk about the impeachment of Donald Trump, for example. In other cases they are due to the fact that each operating system and platforms such as Facebook and Twitter use their own emojis, with some differences in the way they are drawn (in this article we use Apple's as a reference).
But the misunderstandings we are talking about are other: emojis born to express one thing, and that everyone uses to say something else; or emojis used mostly in the right way, but used in the wrong way by a small yet destabilizing percentage of people. Or again: deliberately ambiguous emojis, the meaning of which has been established by everyday use. We have collected 16 such cases, for a greater ecology of instant chats.
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Very used, for this hated, become a meme, used in an ironic way and then used against the ironic way of using it: it is the face that laughs so much that tears fall. This is clear to almost everyone. However, there is a small percentage of people who only see tears, and who therefore use it as a crying face: it is a statistically insignificant percentage, but occasionally occurrences of this emoji used under Facebook posts have circulated online. announced serious and sad news, with results that someone would describe using – punctually, him – the aforementioned emoji.
?
Once we discussed in the editorial office the use we made of this emoji, obtaining interesting and divergent answers. Someone said that he used it to express a slightly embarrassed smile, someone to reply to a thank you or to disguise the pride of having made a successful joke in a group chat. On Emojipedia it is compared to ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯, another symbol of the internet to shrug, a little sly shrug: it's actually a less braggart emoji, closer to the face than you do when you say a good-natured and funny nonsense. “He gets you out of trouble in a lot of situations”, we agreed.
?
Officially it's the confused face. It doesn't actually look really confused and is typically used to express some composed disappointment, dissatisfaction with someone else's response, or to express veiled disapproval of something someone else said.
?
Obviously this is a surprised face. Maybe not a surprise like this? (which in theory should correspond to a frightened scream, as in the painting by Edvard Munch), but still a surprise. Instead it is officially a face that is silent. However, it is one of those cases in which the official meaning is a habit totally disconnected from reality, and in which therefore the meaning prevails in common use. Surprise.
?
Fore taking a sample of a hundred people most would understand this emoji as a crying face. But the crying face is there, is this it? and indeed the tear falls from her eye, rather than from her temple. ? in fact it is the “sad but relieved” face of someone who has had a bad time and has cold sweats but is aware that it could have been worse.
?
Another variant with tear: which however is not a tear but a bubble of mucus that comes out of the nose while you sleep. If the finer representation of sleep is not enough -? – you also have this Japanese manga version. But don't use it if you want to show that you empathize with the pain of others, otherwise you risk fooling yourself.
?
Again a case of official use that perhaps we can not consider: it is a “bewildered” face, but comics and cartoons have accustomed us that those who had crosses on their eyes were dead or in any case were very ill. It's a controversial emoji, to be used consciously.
?
Maybe it's a more American thing, but there are those who interpret those hands as “jazz hands”, referring to the way swing dancers waved them at the beginning of the twentieth century. Instead it is the face of someone who is hugging or at least offering a hug. We can agree that it is not particularly successful and that it can easily seem creepy. To be used only if forced.
??
Both of these faces are not desperate, but very very tired: in theory the first would be exhausted, the second just tired. It may seem more the opposite, but in any case they are neither sore nor sad faces, at least in intention.
?
Unique and somewhat exceptional case: a few years ago the theory began to spread online according to which these hands are high fives, and not hands joined in thanks or prayer, as they are used by all. Periodically there are still tweets supporting this version, going viral. Not so: they have always been hands folded, and other designs of the same emoji prove it. In the more defined versions, however, we see that they are hands that have the little fingers on the same side, which does not happen if you give yourself a high five with the same hand.
?
Still remaining in the championship of hands, these are those of a person who holds them up to celebrate something. Often, however, they are intended as a form of thanks, perhaps because they are interpreted as the outstretched hands of someone pretending to be modest with a crowd: “Good, good, I didn't do anything special”.
?
“I'll give you a punch” or “let's beat our fists as a sign of understanding”? Aggression or mutual respect? On Unicode it is recorded as “incoming punch”, which seems to indicate the first meaning, but elsewhere it is called “brofist”, in support of the second (bro stands for “brother”). The debate on this emoji is quite open: to us it seems a peaceful punch, but for the avoidance of doubt you can compose a more explicit “fist bump”, that is a friendly gesture of approval, using the two fists. ??
?? In reality it represents a woman – but there is also the man – of an information desk while making a gesture as if to say “how can I help you?”. Clear case in which the official meaning is so convoluted and unknown that the unofficial one is valid.
?
It looks like a shooting star, but it's actually one of those little stars that appear on the head of someone who takes a hit in cartoons. It does not seem so, perhaps because it is oblique, perhaps because the circle is not complete, but it is clear from the Facebook version.
?
It does not represent the devil, but the oni, Japanese mythological creatures similar to orcs originally believed to be benevolent and capable of keeping evil spirits away. Over time, oni have almost always become associated with evil things, so the way you use emoji in the end may be just as well.
?
Is this little man doing push-ups, getting a massage, resting? None of this: he is doing the dogeza, the Japanese gesture that indicates an apology, a request for a favor or a great reverence.
