It is now known that the generation that recognizes itself in the label Gen Z has made daily struggles its hallmark. And if on the one hand the desire to change and improve the world is always commendable, on the other it is evident that often some battles are neither useful nor sensible. Among these there is, without a doubt, the one carried out against the emojis, the smileys that we have been using for years to enrich our digital conversations or to set the mood of an online chat. As you can read on Yahooyoung people today, especially on Tik Tokhave drawn up a sort of list of emojis that are not only out of fashion, but that if used reveal a person’s character or their chronological age. For example, the laughing face with tears in its eyes is considered obsolete and in its place, to indicate something that makes you laugh to death, the skull is used.
The latest attack on emojis is the one shared on a Reddit post – later deleted by the author himself – in which it was said that the use of the emoji of thumbs up is actually a passive-aggressive attack. Although the post has been deleted, the comments have remained accessible to everyone and it is in them that you can read the explanation according to which: “For younger people the thumb emoji is used in a more passive-aggressive. It’s super rude if someone just sends you a thumbs up emoji.” The problem, as he points out Forbesis born especially in work environments, where the accused emoji is also inserted into conversations between colleagues or managers. In fact, a Reddit user confirms that “At work we have a Whatsapp chat for our team” and that in it many colleagues respond with the thumb sign that “it’s a bit hostile, as a sign of acknowledgement but also as a sign of I don’t care/I don’t care.”
If, for decades, the image of a thumbs up was the equivalent of an okay or a “having read it, I agree“, today it is considered rude, impulsive, used only to make the recipient feel uncomfortable, who feels in a position of inferiority. Of course, every form of language is an evolutionary form, which changes depending on the use made of the language itself. And emojis make no difference: it is obvious that a forty-year-old user has a different communication style than a twenty-year-old. If the lack of communication between two different generations is acceptable, on the other hand it is dangerous to take for granted that the use of an emoticon necessarily has a negative value or that it is used to harm the interlocutor, especially when it is an emoji with a positive value, such as the thumbs up.
There continues to be the feeling that the new generation is increasingly sensitive and increasingly inclined to find problems even where there are none. The best advice remains that of another user of Reddit who, in the comments, states: “You’re overthinking it. Just use whatever you want.”