The public mood has long been reflected by emojis, the catalogue of colourful icons we litter like punctuation through texts and tweets.
From hearing aids to period blood to tiny people taking selfies, the emoticons play a major role in our digital vocabularies.
Now after a year of lockdowns, emoji experts have identified Loudly Crying Face ???? as the most-used icon on Twitter.
Studying 1.68 billion tweets posted between 2018 and 2021, the analysts at Emojipedia noticed a surge in its use between March and April 2020 – when many countries were first hit with Covid-19 restrictions – and Loudly Crying Face’s popularity has continued to soar ever since.
This is not a joke. The most used emoji on Twitter is now '�ȭ' and here are the numbers https://t.co/gzSc2UTCdW
— Emojipedia (@Emojipedia) April 1, 2021
The open-mouthed-streams-of-tears icon knocked Face with Tears of Joy ???? off the top spot for the first time ever. The crying-laughing emoji was already slowing down in popularity as Gen Z eschewed it as something for uncool millennials, but its decline became notably more rapid after April last year.