Emojis accused of being ‘passive aggressive’ by Generation Z people

The humble emoji is now the latest thing to come under fire, accused of being used in a “patronising” way by teenagers.

Emojis have become an unlikely generational battleground with Gen Z’ers accusing the older millenials of being “patronising” and “passive aggressive” simply by using a smiley face icon.

The teenagers and early 20-somethings in Generation Z claim the millennials misuse emojis in their texts and misunderstand what the little icons mean.

In the US, media intern Hafeezat Bishi told The Wall Street Journal that receiving a bright smiley face emoji from her colleagues in Brooklyn was condescending and dismissive, not a warm welcome.

“I had to remember they are older, because I use it sarcastically. There are so many emojis, and Gen Z can never take things in a simple manner,” the 21-year-old said.

Kelsey Downing, 26, (left) and Jessica Metcalfe, 21, enjoying a laugh at some text messages. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Young people in Australia are also feeling bemused, and a little entertained, by the conversations they are having with their elders using emojis.

Jessica Metcalfe, 21, said emojis were fun but older people could come across as passive aggressive when they used them because they didn’t always mean the same thing.

“When an older person sends a thumbs up, it can come across as (them) being a smart-arse and it’s really annoying,” she said. “Smiley faces are so varied, and you have to be careful which one you’re going to choose because they all mean different things. I don’t think older people are aware of that as much.”

Kelsey Downing, 26, agreed that emojis can be misinterpreted by older people who use them “literally”.

“I feel like sometimes emojis can be misinterpreted by older people, like the red-hot sweaty emoji, which I use as a racy thing with boys, whereas my mum would think I’m literally talking about how hot it is,” Ms Downing said.

“Older people use the thumbs up as a simple way of really saying ‘yeah, good job’. It’s kind of sweet. But we use it to say ‘yeah right, whatever’ in a sarcastic way sometimes.

“My mum uses a lot of love hearts and that really confused wonky, smiling face, but I don’t use it because it’s a bit weird and I don’t really understand it.”

Even the laughing crying emoji which was named “Word of the Year” by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015, is now ridiculed by younger generations.

“It’s common wisdom on TikTok that the laughing crying emoji is for boomers. And by boomers I mean anyone over the age of 35,” said Jeremy Burge, the “chief emoji officer” at Emojipedia, an emoji dictionary website.

Swinburne University Associate Professor Diana Bossio said interpreting emojis differently should not be viewed as a negative thing, but rather a way to learn about intergenerational differences.

“Those miscommunications are illustrating that the way we interpret things are intergenerational, not necessarily bad or good. They’re just the different ways that we talk to each other,” Dr Bossio said.

“The miscommunication through emojis is kind of fun.”