There's no denying much of 2020 has been challenging for most people. These difficult times are being reflected in how we use emojis, according to a study conducted by Emojipedia. Between August 2019 and April 2020, Emojipedia has found a significant decrease in the usage of all "individual positive smiley" emojis, while usage of "negative" or "other/ambiguous" smiley emojis have increased. Despite negative smiley emojis consistent year-over-year usage increase, positive smiley emojis remain the most used smiley emojis despite the recent decrease in usage.
Emojipedia compiled this data by analyzing 68 million unique tweets from the time period between August 2019 and April 2020. In addition to discovering that people were increasingly using negative or ambiguous smiley emojis during that time, they also discovered the 10 most popular emojis in April 2020. In the graphic below, Emojipedia charts how the top 10 most popular emojis have changed over the years. The far right column of emojis depicts the most frequently used emojis in April 2020.
Emojipedia also notes that the Folded Hands (🙏) emoji has seen a significant increase in usage. According to their study, this particular emoji saw nearly a 25% increase between August 2019 and April 2020. While Emojipedia notes this increase "could be related to our current circumstances" with the ongoing pandemic, however, they don't know for sure. Like the folded hands, a number of other emojis saw an increase in usage during the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
Other emojis that have seen a decrease of usage during the pandemic include:
Has your emoji usage changed at all over the past few months?
Photo: Getty/Emojipedia