Depending on your stance on emojis, this news might make you 🙁 or :). For the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries has picked an emoji for Word of the Year.
Oxford announced today that it is going with the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji to reflect the growing use of emojis in 2015. Even compared to last year, use of emojis to show emotion has grown significantly.
“Face with Tears of Joy” was chosen specifically because it made up 20 percent of all emojis used in the U.K., according to SwiftKey stats. In the U.S., it made up 17 percent. In 2014, the emoji only made up 4 percent of all emojis used in the U.K. and 9 percent in the U.S.
Oxford Dictionaries also noted that emojis have become important for anyone who uses social media. You can’t go a second without seeing a Tweet with an emoji. Even Hillary Clinton asked her followers to express emotions with emojis.
Emojis were also embraced by Merriam Webster, which added the word emoji earlier this year.
Actual words considered for Word of the Year include ad blocker; Brexit (a term used to describe the U.K. possibly leaving the EU); Dark Web; lumbersexual; on fleek; refugee; sharing economy; and they (singular).