Not Gen-Z but the one smiley I really hate is that "crying while laughing" one. I think it's the combination of the exaggerated face expression and it often accompanying irritating dumb posts on social media. I saw a couple too many examples of that to a point where I started to subconsciously see this emoji as a spam indicator.

My hypothesis is:

Millenial: :)

Gen-X: :-)

Boomer: cry-laughing emoji and Minions memes

The simple smiley emoticon - :) - is actually used quite a bit with Gen-Z (or maybe this is just my friends). I think because it's something a grandmother would text it simultaneously comes off as ironic and sincere because grandmothers are generally sincere.

The emoji seems cold though

Thanks, it's good to know my Gen-Z coworkers think I'm a friendly grandmother, rather than a cold psychopath :-)

Have you noticed that Gen-Z never uses the nose?

:)

:-)

it's funny, when i was younger i'd never use the nose-version (it seemed lame), but then at some point i got fond of it

i'm trying to think if any1 i know in gen-z has ever sent me a text emoticon. i think it's all been just gifs and emojis...

I remember even in the 90s the nose version felt sort of "old fashioned" to me.

I thought all the emojis were already a red flag that Bing is slightly unhinged.

If Bing had a car, the rear window would be covered with way too many bumper stickers.