4 ms·

i'm millenial/gen-x cusp, and they all seemed pretty reasonable and intuitive to me, EXCEPT number 3 -- a good-old fashioned simple smiley is passive-aggressive

by dilap 4y ago

i'm millenial/gen-x cusp, and they all seemed pretty reasonable and intuitive to me, EXCEPT number 3 -- a good-old fashioned simple smiley is passive-aggressive and cold to gen-z??

Dalewyn 4y ago
Serious take: The new generation rejects what was acceptable to the previous generation as part of the process of developing their own identity. Humorous take: Sensitive snowflakes gonna sensitive.
- eschatology 4y ago
  Here's an attempt to demonstrate how :) can come off as very toxic or passive aggressive: --- Serious take: The new generation rejects what was acceptable to the previous generation as part of the process of developing their own identity :) Humorous take: Sensitive snowflakes gonna sensitive :)
  - Dalewyn 4y ago
    And I say that's their problem. ┐(￣ー￣)┌
  - Jach 4y ago
    I got into the habit of using =P to suggest humor or not being too serious, but since I picked it up from someone at least 10 years older than me, I suppose it could come off as toxic or arrogant to people 10 years younger and none have told me yet
Gigachad 4y ago
That was the most real one imo. The :) is super toxic. Least aggressive would be ^^ or :3
- debugnik 4y ago
  No zoomer I talk to has any idea what ^^ means, it seems like a millennial giveaway. I haven't tested :3, but in general it seems to me they're barely aware of plain-text emotes.
- detourdog 4y ago
  I have seen :) and felt it as toxic. I also don't believe it is inherently toxic. The surprising part to me is that I have an old pamphlet from Hayes that has a catalog of emoticons as we used to refer to them. This means that :) has changed its meaning in a generation or so... which I never considered that "pictograms" could do that. It could also be that the context sets the tone and the emoticons are nuanced.
herval 4y ago
There’s also some etiquette about what emojis are boomer (thus u should never use them).
paganel 4y ago
Same age cohort as you, I’ll continue genuinely using “:)” no matter what.
tux3 4y ago
It's sort of contextual, I think most of the article starts from things that are true in some way, but exaggerates them and takes it a bit too far. The plain smiley can sound like sarcasm/irony or a passive-agressive tone, because it looks a little lifeless compared to modern emojis that are more expressive. It used to be the most expressive you could be, but now it's the most plain you can be. The least amount of smiling you could be smiling. It can look like a fake smile as a result.
devnullbrain 4y ago
Exactly, it's old fashioned - if you've only ever used a phone keyboard with a dedicated emoji keyboard button, it's conspicuous. This doesn't apply to the emoji version but that has the bad luck of unfortunate, cold representations in most emoji fonts.
groestl 4y ago
This explains it a bit: https://alicecorner.medium.com/the-slightly-smiling-emoji-is-the-most-menacing-em-1fd33ff7be4d https://alicecorner.medium.com/the-slightly-smiling-emoji-is... (especially the Spongebob part)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
detourdog 4y ago
I often wonder if please is passive aggressive and I’m gen-x
HumanReadable 4y ago
It depends on the context, but the standard smiley face has effectively been replaced with the following two: https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes/

by dilap 4y ago

i'm millenial/gen-x cusp, and they all seemed pretty reasonable and intuitive to me, EXCEPT number 3 -- a good-old fashioned simple smiley is passive-aggressive and cold to gen-z??

Dalewyn 4y ago

Serious take: The new generation rejects what was acceptable to the previous generation as part of the process of developing their own identity. Humorous take: Sensitive snowflakes gonna sensitive.

eschatology 4y ago
Here's an attempt to demonstrate how :) can come off as very toxic or passive aggressive: --- Serious take: The new generation rejects what was acceptable to the previous generation as part of the process of developing their own identity :) Humorous take: Sensitive snowflakes gonna sensitive :)
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  And I say that's their problem. ┐(￣ー￣)┌
- Jach 4y ago
  I got into the habit of using =P to suggest humor or not being too serious, but since I picked it up from someone at least 10 years older than me, I suppose it could come off as toxic or arrogant to people 10 years younger and none have told me yet

Gigachad 4y ago

That was the most real one imo. The :) is super toxic. Least aggressive would be ^^ or :3

debugnik 4y ago
No zoomer I talk to has any idea what ^^ means, it seems like a millennial giveaway. I haven't tested :3, but in general it seems to me they're barely aware of plain-text emotes.
detourdog 4y ago
I have seen :) and felt it as toxic. I also don't believe it is inherently toxic. The surprising part to me is that I have an old pamphlet from Hayes that has a catalog of emoticons as we used to refer to them. This means that :) has changed its meaning in a generation or so... which I never considered that "pictograms" could do that. It could also be that the context sets the tone and the emoticons are nuanced.

herval 4y ago

There’s also some etiquette about what emojis are boomer (thus u should never use them).

paganel 4y ago

Same age cohort as you, I’ll continue genuinely using “:)” no matter what.

tux3 4y ago

It's sort of contextual, I think most of the article starts from things that are true in some way, but exaggerates them and takes it a bit too far. The plain smiley can sound like sarcasm/irony or a passive-agressive tone, because it looks a little lifeless compared to modern emojis that are more expressive. It used to be the most expressive you could be, but now it's the most plain you can be. The least amount of smiling you could be smiling. It can look like a fake smile as a result.

devnullbrain 4y ago

Exactly, it's old fashioned - if you've only ever used a phone keyboard with a dedicated emoji keyboard button, it's conspicuous. This doesn't apply to the emoji version but that has the bad luck of unfortunate, cold representations in most emoji fonts.

groestl 4y ago

This explains it a bit: https://alicecorner.medium.com/the-slightly-smiling-emoji-is-the-most-menacing-em-1fd33ff7be4d https://alicecorner.medium.com/the-slightly-smiling-emoji-is... (especially the Spongebob part)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

detourdog 4y ago

I often wonder if please is passive aggressive and I’m gen-x

HumanReadable 4y ago

It depends on the context, but the standard smiley face has effectively been replaced with the following two: https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes/ https://emojipedia.org/smiling-face-with-smiling-eyes/