A quick scroll through your recent WhatsApp exchanges and you'll be sure to find several conversations littered with emojis.
The dancing girl to express excitement at news of Beyoncé's pregnancy announcement, an embarrassed monkey to represent an apology for canceling drinks at the weekend, a crying emoji at a hilarious story – we women can't get enough of emoticons to help us communicate how we feel throughout the day.
However, a new study by social media monitoring company Brandwatch has found the way men and women use emojis might reveal some concerning differences in how we express our feelings.
According to the study, 61.7 per cent of tear-based emojis used on Twitter are sent by women, while the most commonly used crying emoji by men is the laughing crying face.
Meanwhile, the only face significantly out-Tweeted by men to women is the weird robot face emoji which, let's be honest, is categorically the most boring emoji on the planet.
While men using fewer crying emojis on social media isn't exactly a sign of repressed male emotion, it does allude to the idea of male introversion.
Since crying is a normal way of externalising emotion and displaying mental health issues, the study's insight is concerning given research by the mental health charity Mind in 2015 found that 80 per cent of men repress feelings of anxiety rather than expressing their emotions.
However, while men might have an issue with communicating their feelings on social media via emojis, it seems one thing they're more likely to do than women is send d*ck jokes.
No big surprise there, then.
According to the data, 56 per cent of tweets containing the eggplant emoji – an ideogram often used to represent male genitalia – are sent by men.
But, before you start labelling men with the 'immature' card, the study also found 53 per cent of all tweets containing the poop emoji are sent by women.
The study also analyzed trending content within a selected audience.
It found a large segment of people who use the frog face emoji in their social media bios were more likely to be Donald Trump supporters, which could relate to the President's tweet in 2015 when he posted an illustration of himself as a frog standing at a podium with the President of the United States Seal.
Let that be a warning to us all.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
