I mean this genuinely, are you on the spectrum? My friends and I use emojis all the time and I've never been confused by what they mean.

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smeej 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Do you ever use them cross-generationally? I had a friend a dozen years my junior stop talking to me because I used a winking face when I wanted to make it clear I was kidding and he thought I was flirting with him. Never mind that we'd been friends for years and there had never, ever been a hint of interest between us. He insisted I should have known that's what it "always" means, never mind that I was using emoticons in AIM when he was in diapers.

	▲	mardef 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This doesn't feel much different than words. There was a whole ordeal at Microsoft when an intern said an event was going to be "lit" and a bunch of older generation folk assumed that meant drugs. Language changes all the time, emoji are just part of that.
	▲	bobsmooth 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm not friends with any zoomers but I generally use sticking tongue out when I'm being cheeky.