To Gen Z, that classic smiley face emoji isn’t all sunshine — it’s more of a smug, side-eye smirk that can come off as passive-aggressive in texts like above.

Of course the smiley face wasn’t always just an emoji. It actually has a steeper history that’s older than any Gen Z. According to The Guardian, the smiley face was invented in 1963 “as a ...

The smiley face emoji is no longer being perceived as joyful. The generation born between 1997 and 2012 finds it to be anything but positive. Yup, that's right.

From a simple thumbs up to a laughing cowboy, there is an emoji for almost any conceivable moment. But it is the humble smiley face which is the most iconic of them all. However, if you've been ...

The ubiquitous emoji means happy, good job or any number of other positive sentiments to most people over about age 30. But for many teens and 20-somethings, a smiley face popping up in a text or ...

London - Putting a ‘smiley’ face emoji on work emails is likely to make colleagues grumpy, a study has found. Rather than putting a cheery grin on the reader’s face, they are more likely to ...

Gen Z's interpretation of the smiley face emoji isn't new, although it's making headlines again. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal ran a whole piece on it and included insight from Gen Z.