I posted this in a couple of autism subreddits and I was directed here, as a user thought this would be the best place for my question.

I want to become better at using and understanding the meaning/intent of emoji use. Online I’ve found guides that show a brief description of each emoji and its meaning but they’re all very basic.

Is there any resource that has longer descriptions of how popular emoji are used informally? Like, for a basic example, I know the 🍆 isn’t actually used for the vegetable meaning. People all seem to know the ‘meme’ meaning of certain emoji. Sometimes one emoji can be used in many drastically different situations that are all far from their their literal meanings. Or the icon/face is difficult to interpret or it shows graphically as slightly different on each device.

So, I just wondered if there’s any list somewhere of the most popular emoji that are popularly used in ways that are less clear than their literal meaning. And ideally it’d help if there were then case descriptions of examples showing their real use in common conversations. Like, what the heck does 🥴🤪 mean, why and how is 🤷🏽‍♀️ used for more than just ‘I don’t know’, apparently 👍 use is only for being sarcastic? I see this 🙃 a lot and… what?!🤔 Is for ‘hmm’ or questioning something but I’ve also seen it in totally unrelated scenarios too! It’s a nightmare.

A lot of it I’ve tried to learn from guessing my own rules of use, from seeing when others use them. Then gathering a list of ‘use cases’ and implementing them when a scenario seems to fit one I’ve observed. But I’ve been told I get it wrong a lot and it’d be a lot easier if there was some global list somewhere rather than thing to store it all mentally

Thank you in advance for your help, I don’t know if this is the best place for this. I am very conscious that my ability to convey what I’m trying to explain is terrible, so I over correct by writing too much. So I apologise that there is such a wall of text. I can explain more if needed, but I find it much easier to explain/expand via an answer that is replying to other people’s more focused questions versus tackling the explanation at once myself.

You may say, just don’t use emoji at all. And on the whole I do find it easier to just avoid the use myself entirely, or stick to one’s I’m sure of. But recently I’ve made a resolution to improve myself in multiple areas, and gaining friends is one of those areas so first I need to improve communication. So I need to be able to interpret others meaning, even if I avoid emoji on my sending side.

TLDR is there any learning resource that explains what emoji mean. Especially in cases where people use them for multiple meanings, or when the meaning and use has become more complicated than the literal icon. Often when used in a meme type way

2 comments
  1. Just do what I do. Don’t use them at all. There is no reason to use them especially if u are a guy.

    If u want to show the emotion then use abbreviations like, Lol – laughing out loud, or just words, like Seriously?

    Trust me, it’s way better.

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