The most commonly misused emojis revealed - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life The most commonly misused emojis revealed By Sophie Hines - July 18, 2022 Where would we be without emojis? The little faces and figures provide such a useful shorthand in our digital conversations, from helping us express the tone of a message (such as a laughing crying face to flag that we’re only joking) to providing instant reactions of love, happiness or anger. They’re rife across social media and messaging platforms – in fact, Whatsapp recently introduced a function where you can attach an emoji reaction to a particular message in the thread, showing just how useful we find these symbols. However, it turns out that, despite being a universal language, emojis are commonly ‘misused’ – with multiple meanings attached to each little face and symbol. For example, recent research by Slack, a workplace messaging service, found that older people innocently using an aubergine or winking faces in their messages were horrifying younger colleagues. Olivia Grace, a director at Slack, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The findings of our research are very clear — be mindful when communicating with emojis across generations. ‘Younger people tend to view the winking face as “feeling flirty” and even as a come-on, while older colleagues usually see it as a harmless “I’m kidding” message. Emojis offer a great way to communicate emotion, whether it’s a joke, support, get well soon or something else, but it’s good to be aware that different meanings may exist to avoid any awkward interpretations.’ The aubergine and peach emojis were seen to represent straightforward vegetables and fruit by many older people, but were more sexually suggestive to the younger cohort. A third of the under-40s believed the peach emoji was not suitable for the office, even though 59 per cent of those aged over 55 had no idea of its hidden meaning (younger people said it signifies buttocks). So which other emojis are commonly misunderstood? According to TextAnywhere, the most commonly misused ones are as follows. The most commonly misused emojis Upside down smiley This emoji is meant to convey sarcasm, irony, humour, and silliness. It can represent awkwardness or frustration. Most people asked thought this emoji meant something happy and should be used in circumstances of happiness. This demonstrates that many Brits are in fact using this emoji in the wrong instance! The second most popular answer for this emoji was that it represents confusion and the third that it should be used to represent sarcasm, showing some respondents were aware of the intended use. Information desk person The majority of Brits are using this emoji to say ‘hi’, ‘whatever’ or show ‘sass’, but according to TextAnywhere, this is not its true intention. The emoji is, in fact, intended to represent a person at an information or reception desk who can aid individuals with answers to their questions. Slightly smiling face This emoji is a yellow face with a thin closed smile and open eyes. The tone of the emoji can often be used to emphasise a passive aggressive message or something ironic, where the sender means to communicate that something is not really fine. The research showed that six in 10 Brits were not aware of this meaning, describing it as a ‘happy’ emoji. A further 23% stated that the aim of the emoji was to convey a smile while just 1.5% of respondents correctly responded that the emoji is used to mostly relay sarcasm. Face with steam from nose Over half of respondents correctly answered that this emoji is meant to demonstrate anger, with the furrowed eyebrows and steam blowing from the nose giving indications of irritation and frustration. Answers also included describing the emoji as annoyed, however, some respondents incorrectly identified the emoji as portraying an image of an individual sneezing. Grimacing face This emoji aims to represent negative or tense emotions, where an individual may be conveying nervousness, awkwardness or embarrassment. While 16% of respondents did correctly identify the emoji as showing someone scared or nervous, others thought the clenched teeth were implying that this emoji is to represent anger. 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