Gen Z co-opted the smiley face emoji, but beware — it means something totally different to them
Smiling at Gen Z? Better watch your back.
What used to be the universal symbol of warmth and joy has taken a sinister turn — at least in the eyes of Gen Z.
The classic smiley face emoji now means something completely different to those under 30.
Instead of conveying happiness, the grinning yellow face is now seen as dismissive, passive-aggressive, or straight-up sarcastic.
And if you're sending it to younger colleagues or friends, it could be rubbing them the wrong way.
Hafeezat Bishi, a 21-year-old intern, recently told the Wall Street Journal that she was taken aback when her older co-workers used the smiley emoji in emails and texts.
'I had to remember they are older, because I use it sarcastically,' Bishi said, explaining that she often views the emoji as conveying a 'side-eye smile' rather than genuine enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, Sara Anderson, a 31-year-old cheerleading coach, told the outlet that she regularly includes the emoji to add 'lightness' to her messages.
But that's exactly the disconnect — what seems friendly to older folks can come off as phony or even biting to the younger crowd.
According to Erica Dhawan, author of 'Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance,' older generations tend to take emojis at face value, while younger 'digital natives' assign entirely different meanings.
'People over 30 tend to use emoji according to their dictionary,' Dhawan told the Journal, emphasizing that for Gen Z, emoji meanings have evolved into a whole new lexicon.
But the generational gap isn't just about smileys.
Back in March, Amit Kalley, founder of mom-and-dad support site For Working Parents, warned that emojis have become a covert language for teens to communicate everything from drug slang to hate speech.
'It's far from an exhaustive list, but it's based on common emojis used to say something very different to what you'd think,' Kalley wrote on Instagram, pointing to a 'periodic table of emojis' that decodes the hidden messages.
And the emoji evolution doesn't end there.
A recent study from Oklahoma State University found that emoji use can reveal a lot more about your personality than you might think.
Researchers surveyed 285 undergraduates, mostly 20-year-olds, to see how their emoji habits aligned with personality traits.
'Emoji use may be related to strategies to manipulate the perceptions of others and to present a positive impression of oneself,' the study said, suggesting that what you send could say more about you than you realize.
So, the next time you slap a smiley face emoji on a message to Gen Z, think twice — it might not come off as cheery as you'd hoped.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mom of Elon Musk's 14th Baby Offers 'Breakup Advice' to Donald Trump After Their Messy Feud Reaches Tipping Point
Ashley St. Clair has reached out to President Donald Trump after Elon Musk publicly turned on him over the White House's controversial spending plans. The influencer is the mother of Musk's 14th baby, son Romulus. Musk has shared several posts on X over the past few days criticizing the president's "Big, Beautiful Bill," which reached a breaking point on Thursday, June 5, when Trump broke his silence on the St. Clair is offering her sympathies to President Donald Trump after his friendship with Elon Musk reached a breaking point on Thursday, June 5. The influencer, who is the mother of Musk's 14th baby, son Romulus, shared a post on X after Trump publicly weighed in on his escalating tension with the Tesla CEO over a significant piece of legislation floating through Congress. "Hey @realDonaldTrump lmk if you need any breakup advice," St. Clair quipped in her post. Musk and St. Clair had a public feud on X a few months, where Musk first claimed he hadn't established the paternity of the child and had "given Ashley $2.5M and am sending her $500k/year." In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that a report from Labcorp revealed that Musk's "Probability of Paternity" was 99.9999%. Musk started his feud with the Trump administration via his X account on Tuesday, June 3, just days after resigning his White House role on a cordial note. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," he wrote of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it." He continued in a second post, writing. "It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt." The "Big, Beautiful Bill" is funding its tax cuts and military spending in part by cutting some federal health and energy programs. However, it is also poised to add an estimated $2.4 trillion to the national deficit over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Musk — who lead Trump's Department of Government Efficiency until May 30 — previously expressed his displeasure with the bill. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' he told CBS Sunday Morning in a May interview. 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both," Musk said. After Musk publicly condemned the bill on X, a social media site he owns, Trump finally weighed on his remarks during an Oval Office press conference on Thursday. Trump was asked about Musk's recent social media rampage over the sweeping spending bill, to which he accused Musk of acting in his own self-interest. "Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anyone sitting here," Trump said. "He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the [electric vehicle] mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars." Trump admitted during the press conference that the future of his friendship with Musk now looks uncertain. "Elon and I had a great relationship," he said in past tense. "I don't know if we will anymore." The president added that he's "very disappointed in Elon" and claimed that he's "helped Elon a lot." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. While Musk's attacks had been largely focused on the president's proposed legislation prior to Thursday, Trump said he anticipated that the Tesla CEO would begin to get more personal as soon as Congress got closer to passing the bill. Moments after the president made that prediction, Musk posted on X that "Trump would have lost the election" and handed the House to Democrats in November if it weren't for the tech billionaire's financial support and aggressive campaigning. During Trump's 2024 campaign, Musk was one of the president's biggest supporters. He donated nearly $275 million to the campaign and was a key advisor during the first few months of his second term. But, it seems like the relationship quickly soured. In a report from The Wall Street Journal released on Musk's final day as a government employee, Trump administration officials quoted the president as recently asking his advisers, 'Was it all bulls---?' in regard to Musk's promise to dramatically slash costs via his work with DOGE. At one point, Musk claimed he could save the government $2 trillion, but DOGE's most recent estimate is that it's saved $175 billion — and even that figure has been framed as an overestimate by multiple news outlets that tracked down the receipts. The Trump administration has also learned that the high cost of legal fees associated with Musk's actions — in addition to the dip in revenue as a result of DOGE's cuts — largely negates those savings. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
From Viral Ad To $8 Soap: How Sydney Sweeney Turned Fan Obsession Into A Marketing Goldmine
A limited-edition soap reportedly containing a small amount of Sydney Sweeney's bathwater will go on sale for $8 this week. The Emmy-nominated "Euphoria" star partnered with men's grooming brand Dr. Squatch to launch Sydney's Bathwater Bliss. The campaign originated from a Dr. Squatch advertisement featuring Sweeney in a bubble bath promoting the brand's natural body wash. Originally released in October, the video went viral and sparked a wave of social media memes and comments centered around the idea of her bathwater. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:. 'You kept asking about my bathwater after the @drsquatch ad... so we kept it,' she wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday announcing the soap launch. The product's description markets it as blending the outdoors and Sweeney's bathtub, with ingredients like pine, Douglas fir, and a 'touch' of her bathwater labeled as one of nature's finest aphrodisiacs. The brand announced a limited run of 5,000 units of Sydney's Bathwater Bliss, set to go on sale on June 6. To build hype ahead of the release, Dr. Squatch is distributing 100 bars through a pre-launch Instagram giveaway contest, according to People magazine. Targeting Gen Z men, a key demographic for Dr. Squatch, the brand has heavily invested in TikTok advertising, spending $3.6 million in the first eight months of 2021, according to Marketing Dive. This campaign continues that trend, leveraging social media buzz and limited availability to generate anticipation ahead of the product's release. Trending: The launch of Sydney's Bathwater Bliss sparked mixed reactions across the internet. Reddit users debated the ethics and hygiene of using real bathwater in a commercial product, with threads questioning the limits of celebrity branding and personal fluid use in skincare. "Fans always joke about wanting my bath water... I was like, this is just such a cool way to have a conversation with the audience and give them what they want," Sweeney told GQ. She described the soap as having an outdoorsy scent of pine, earthy moss, and fir—also known as the brand's signature Morning Wood fragrance—mixed with some city bath water. "There's no playbook for turning Sydney Sweeney's actual bath water into a bar of soap," Dr. Squatch Senior Vice President of Global Marketing John Ludeke said in a statement to The New York Times. "But that's exactly why we did it." He added that the goal was to spark conversations about men's personal care campaign draws on a history of provocative celebrity product stunts that captured public attention. Gwyneth Paltrow's 2020 launch of the 'This Smells Like My Vagina' candle, made headlines and sold out quickly. In 2019, internet personality Belle Delphine generated over $90,000 in profits after selling jars of her so-called "GamerGirlBathWater' at $30 a piece. Sydney's Bathwater Bliss builds on past instances of bold celebrity branding—leveraging star power, limited supply, and unconventional marketing to spark viral interest and strong consumer demand. Dr. Squatch has not confirmed whether the soap will be continued. Read Next: Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article From Viral Ad To $8 Soap: How Sydney Sweeney Turned Fan Obsession Into A Marketing Goldmine originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
'Martha Stewart aesthetic' is the trend of the summer, according to Pinterest report
It's been 49 years since Martha Stewart left Wall Street, and the lifestyle maven is as influential as ever. According to the 2025 Pinterest Summer Report, the 'Martha Stewart aesthetic' is poised to take over, with searches up 2,889 per cent on the platform. From her vegetable garden (+72 per cent) to dinner recipes (+45 per cent) and chicken coop (+22 per cent), Stewart continues to inspire. 'It's going to be a Martha Girl Summer,' the Martha Stewart Instagram account posted. 'As we've seen, our founder is influencing the influencers, with many embracing her iconic lifestyle by throwing dinner parties, cultivating home-grown produce and raising backyard chickens.' The nearly three-thousand-fold increase includes Stewart-specific search terms, such as 'Martha Stewart chicken coop,' and more general ones that Pinterest attributes to her sway, including 'fresh summer recipes.' Stewart's estate in Bedford, New York, spans 153 acres. When she bought it in 2000, it was 'a blank canvas,' according to a Facebook post. Today, it's filled with rose beds, daffodils, orchards, vegetable plots and a greenhouse dedicated to begonias. 'My father taught me that you can do it all from scratch, starting from seeds or cuttings, and if you nurture them, they will produce,' she said. 'For me, gardening is all about scent, colour, and variety, variety, and more variety.' In the spirit of Stewart's DIY philosophy, Pinterest users are gravitating toward harvest recipes (+680 per cent), urban farming (+374 per cent), flower gardens (+259 per cent), small backyard vegetable gardens (+246 per cent) and garden-to-table cooking (+117 per cent). 'This back-to-basics approach not only fosters a reconnection to nature but also pairs seamlessly with the rise of summer detox drinks, with searches up 566 per cent on Pinterest,' according to the report. As people have started drinking less alcohol, especially young adults, functional beverages have filled the gap. These drinks, particularly popular among millennials and Gen Z, are designed to deliver health benefits beyond hydration and may be infused with herbs, vitamins and minerals, protein or CBD. Green juices for gut health (+316 per cent) — which Stewart drinks every morning — flavoured water drinks (+289 per cent), spinach smoothies that taste good (+227 per cent), anti-inflammatory drinks (+289 per cent) and herbal infusion recipes (+71 per cent) are among the summer detox drinks quenching Pinterest users' thirst. Whether low-alcohol, non-alcoholic or boozy, 'The popularity of savoury cocktails reflects a curiosity for innovative beverage experiences, marrying fresh produce and herbs with creative cocktail concoctions for a refreshing twist on traditional summer sips.' Cook This: 3 recipes for sharing from Family Style, including crispy devilled tea eggs These 9 restaurants gained Michelin stars in the first-ever Quebec guide Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our cookbook and recipe newsletter, Cook This, here.
