Every July 17, the internet comes together and celebrates World Emoji Day. The date was chosen because it's displayed on the 📅 calendar emoji, but it's a day to appreciate all emoji, even the more obscure ones, like the 🫙jar. In honor of the internet holiday, I asked my colleagues at CNET what their favorite and most used emoji are.
The rules for voting were simple: You could only vote once for your favorite emoji and once for your most-used emoji. There was more variety in the category of favorite emoji since individual tastes are subjective, while there was more homogeneity among most used emoji -- not surprising in a work environment. But smileys dominated both lists, making up over half of the selections for favorite emoji and just under half of the selections for most used emoji.
Yes, I voted in the poll, and, no, my creative genius didn't top either of our lists.
So without further ado, here are some of CNET's favorite and most used emoji and what those emoji mean.
2 emoji were tied for our favorite, and the vibe is 'everything's fine'
CNET staffers' favorite emoji include the melting face and heart hands emoji. Emojipedia
There were two emoji that came on top for the favorite emoji at CNET. The 🫠 melting face and 😬 grimacing face each had about 10% of the vote, making them the two favorite emoji of CNET staffers.
According to Emojipedia, melting face can be used for sarcasm or to convey a sense of embarrassment or a slowly sinking sense of dread.
"Melting smiley face is just a perfect encapsulation of when you're on the verge of a meltdown from things going awry but you have to keep smiling through it all," said CNET Editor-at-Large Bridget Carey, who voted for the melting face. "It's just a delightfully cartoonish expression when I'm juggling too many things as a working parent and there's chaos in the world, because when everything feels like it's failing, I just want to laugh through it."
And the grimacing face can be used for nervousness or awkwardness, as well as other negative or tense emotions.
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