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Wellness | Sex & R/S

These best and worst emojis to use, based on a survey 😂

Time to brush up on your emoji etiquette. Find out which emojis are most widely accepted and can boost your relationships, plus the emojis that are most likely to lead to misunderstandings

By Her World Team - 

best and worst emojis survey 2021
Credit: 123rf
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It's World Emoji Day on July 17 - who knew? 🤷‍♀️ Not that we need a day to commemorate emojis. With increasing usage of social media and messaging apps, emojis have become an essential part of our digital language to express ourselves, for better or for worse. 😆

According to a survey by software company Adobe, 55% of global emoji users are more comfortable expressing emotions through emoji than phone conversations. Not surprising, since the right emoji can convey nuances that we're often unable to adequately communicate through words. 😂🤣😅

Since emojis are a mainstay in our daily communication, have you wondered if your emoji language is working for you in relationships, be it love or work? Could your 🤪 or 🤡 be unknowingly sabotaging you? After all, each of us has our own interpretation of emojis, and our preferences for using them. And because there's no universal way of using emojis, emojis can be just as easily misunderstood as they are understood.

Check out these key findings from Adobe’s 2021 Global Emoji Trend Report, which shed light on certain emojis - the ones that will give you a leg up in dating and at work, as well as the downright confusing or misleading emojis that we should, perhaps, regulate our use of.

Note that this survey was done on 7,000 people in the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. Regrettably, Singaporeans weren't surveyed, but we reckon our responses wouldn't veer too far away from these results.

Top 5 favourite emojis

1/8

The top 5 all-time favourite emojis are, in this order:

1. 😂 face with tears of joy

2. 👍 thumbs up

3. ❤ red heart

4. 😘 face blowing a kiss

5. 😢 crying face

Can we agree on that?

Top 3 and bottom 3 emojis for flirting or dating

2/8

The top 3 emojis voted to make you more likable are:

1. 😘 face blowing a kiss

2. 🥰 smiling face with hearts

3. 😍 smiling face with heart-eyes

Hearts are definitely the way to go when it comes to love and likability.

The top 3 emojis that make you less likable are:

1. 🍆 eggplant

2. 🍑 peach

3. 🤪 zany face

Perhaps, it's better to save the eggplants and peaches for when you're in a steady and committed relationship, or only if you know that your partner is cool with them.

"Zany" refers to a silly, foolish or eccentric person. Guess that emoji doesn't bode well for budding romantic relationships.

Top 3 most misunderstood emojis

3/8

You might want to steer clear of these emojis, especially in new or non-intimate relationships:

1. 🍆 eggplant

2. 🍑 peach

3. 🤡 clown

According to Dictionary.com, the clown emoji is "commonly used to convey various silly, goofy feelings or that someone is acting like a clown (foolish). As some people find clowns creepy, the emoji is also sometimes used to mean that something or someone is scary or suspicious."

On Urban Dictionary, the clown emoji is also used to "end arguments and/or burn someone in insult form".

With so many different interpretations of the clown emoji, it's no wonder why 🤡 is easily misunderstood.

66% of emoji users like it when people use emoji at work

4/8

Using emoji at work is not a bad idea if your colleagues and bosses are using it too.

71% of emoji users say using emoji at work positively impacts likeability and credibility

5/8

It's time to use emojis to help you build rapport and trust with others, if you haven't been using them already.

Most Gen Z'ers like using emojis in workplace communications

6/8

For the record, Gen Z'ers are the ones born between 1997 and 2015. If you're working with Gen Z'ers, remember that emojis can help to improve communication and work relationships with them.

Which brings us to the next point...

Top 3 most effective emojis to motivate people at work

7/8

The 3 most effective emojis for motivating people at work are:

1. 👍 thumbs up

2. 💪 flexed biceps

3. 👌 OK hand

Yes, we like these 3 emojis for work too.

Top 5 emoji categories to be expanded

8/8

Not surprisingly, emojis to do with emotional feelings and relationships are the ones that people would like to have more options for. We'd love to see emojis for "sian" (Hokkien for bored or fed up) and that fatigued Zoom face.

This is followed by food and drinks (on our wish list: durian and coconut drink emojis), animals and nature, and daily objects. Oh yes, how about some emojis to represent our favourite beauty products too?

Tags

datingemojiflirtingworkplace communication
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