The use of this emoji reveals that you are ancient

It's as if it's secretly taking over you. Until recently, I was particularly consistent. I either used typographic emojis/emoticons (how the hell do you actually say this?) or I didn't. A heart here and there still passed the ballot, but that was it. Until the ‘smirk’ articulated my emotions particularly well and I also felt something for the exaggerated laughing yellow cheeky creature. And precisely that last one now seems to betray my age.

Laughing until you cry means you belong to the boomers. Wait, what? Boomers, aren't they our fathers, mothers, uncles, and aunts? Those folks who need reading glasses to read texts. Those? Googles: what age are boomers? Further research shows that I am indeed a real millennial, but Emojipedia and CNN just lump me in with the 35-plus crowd and slap the boomer label on me. Ouch, and there I go. Damn, you're barely a month 35 years old and it seeps into everything right away.

To put myself in the mindset: if an emoji makes it to word (?) of the year according to the Oxford Dictionaries, then it seems almost legitimate to use it. Not really, because Gen Z has a rather morbid way of indicating that something is funny. The skull emoji (really?) means that someone is laughing to death over something. As I read this, I immediately scroll back in my app and see the harsh truth. Our Lotte has been sending me skull emojis since July 14, 2020 to be precise, and I only understand it now. It does indicate how far I am on the boomer scale.

The laughing until you cry emoji can go on the bonfire, along with the skinny jeans we loved so dearly. Gen Z has decided and knows through just one emoji that you don't belong with them. The fun part is that this very emotion indicates that you are extroverted. I've never heard that about a skull. Have you?

Oh, and if you think that rolling around on the floor rascal is less bad? Nope. This yellow creature immediately gives away that you are ancient. Oh well, I don't care either. I was already putting together emojis when that whole Gen Z still had to be conceived. Although it probably makes me even less hip if I don't care, knowing Gen Z.