“Tears of joy prevailed as the most-used emoji in 2021, despite Gen Z’s stated contempt for it.” A. P. Kambhampaty, The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2021
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key
Jörg Carstensen:Picture alliance via Getty Images
Excerpt: The Year in Emojis, By Anna P. Kambhampaty, The New York Times, Dec. 9, 2021
“The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat to how we spend our time. There is one thing, however, that has remained almost unchanged: the emojis we send.
According to data from the Unicode Consortium, the organization that maintains the standards for digital text, nine of the 10 most-used emojis from 2019 (which was the last time they released data) also ranked among the top 10 this year. The red heart emoji held the No. 2 spot, and the tears of joy emoji ranked No. 1, despite members of Gen Z deeming it uncool (along with side parts and skinny jeans).
To the people who create and study emojis, the persistence of tears of joy, also known as the laughing-crying emoji, comes as no surprise.
‘It speaks to how many people use emoji. If emoji were a purely Gen Z thing, then you wouldn’t see it so highly ranked,’ said Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google. ‘Because of the sheer number of people using emoji, even if one group thinks something is lame, they have to be a really big group to affect these statistics.’
Looking at a single platform, however, might tell a slightly different story. According to data obtained from Twitter, tears of joy was the most tweeted emoji in 2020, but got bumped down to No. 2 this year, with the crying face taking its place. Tears of joy saw a 23 percent decline in usage from 2020 to 2021…’We did see a rise in the use of the virus emoji, but not in a way that even made it remotely into the most-commonly used emojis because we still had plenty to laugh about and plenty to cry about, whether it was because of the pandemic or not,’ said Lauren Gawne, co-host of the podcast ‘Lingthusiasm’ and a senior lecturer in linguistics at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.”
ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post
Word Inference
Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.
- The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life.
- There is one thing that has remained unchanged the emojis we send.
- According to data the red heart emoji held the No. 2 spot, and the tears of joy emoji ranked No. 1.
- The tears of joy emoji ranked No. 1, despite members of Gen Z deeming it uncool.
- To the people who create and study emojis, the persistence of tears of joy, comes as no surprise.
- It makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t hip.
- It’s part of the teenage experience of creating a sense of subculture where there’s a right way and a wrong way of behaving.
- You don’t necessarily need a vaccination emoji because you have biceps and a syringe emoji.
- People used the microbe, or virus, emoji to refer to Covid.
- If one group thinks something is lame, they have to be a really big group to affect these statistics.
Vocabulary Cluster By Learnnc.org
Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage
Directions: The following groups of sentences are from the article. One of the sentences in each group contains a grammatical error. Identify the sentence (1, 2, or 3 ) from each group that contains the grammatical error.
I
- The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life.
- Many people uses emoji.
- it makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t hip.
II
- There are a spectrum of laughter that can be expressed through text.
- Using emojis, such as the skull face (“I’m dead”) can help to illustrate a range of emotions.
- Looking at a single platform, however, might tell a slightly different story.
III
- Tears of joy was the most tweeted emoji in 2020.
- It basically indicating that we need to communicate a broad range of expressions.
- The syringe emoji jumped to 193rd place this year in terms of overall usage.
Reading Comprehension: Identify The Speakers
Directions: Read the following quotes from the speakers in the article. Then identify the speakers.
“It speaks to how many people use emoji. If emoji were a purely Gen Z thing, then you wouldn’t see it so highly ranked.”
“And it makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t hip. It’s part of the teenage experience of creating a sense of subculture where there’s a right way and a wrong way of behaving.”
“Even in the midst of this massive global pandemic that preoccupied so much of our time, we still spent a lot of time wishing each other happy birthday or checking in or laughing about some new and unexpected element of this slow-burning weirdness.”
Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing
Directions: Have students discuss the following questions/statements. Afterwards, students share their thoughts as a class. To reinforce the ideas, students can write an essay on one of the topics mentioned.
- Do you use emojis? Why?
- What are your favorite emojis?
- According to data from the Unicode Consortium, which emoji held the No. 2 spot in 2019 and in 2020?
- Which group regarded the tears of joy emoji as ‘uncool’ ? Why?
- Why is the laughing-crying emoji the favorite?
- According to Alexander Roberton, what happens if one group dislikes a certain emoji?
- According to Jennifer Daniel why does it make sense that Gan Z would think that some emojis aren’t hip?
- What is the spectrum of laughter expressed through emojis?
- According to the article, which emoji was the most tweeted during 2020?
- Which emoji became number one in 2021?
- What does the consistent use of emojis indicate?
- In what language was the crown emoji used to refer to Covid? Why?
- Why did people use such a range of emojis to express themselves in the past two years?
- List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.
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