Tears of joy

Tears of joy

 

Oxford’s word of the year will make you laugh so hard, you’ll cry. In fact, this year’s word of the year is not even a word… it’s an emoji.

  This word is specifically the tears of joy emoji. It features a face laughing with tears coming out of its eyes.

  Oxford University Press teamed up with a keyboard app company, SwiftKey, to figure out which emoji was the most used in 2015. According to their data, this tears of joy emoji comprised of 17 percent of all emojis used in the United States.

  Oxford believed that this emoji ““best reflected the ethos, mood and preoccupations of 2015.”

  An emoji is an image or icon that is heavily prevalent in the world of texting. It is a Japanese word, but some may be more familiar with the English word, emoticon.

  Emojis have gained increasing popularity in recent years, as it has become a staple in teens’ ways of communication through texting and social media.

  Through the increased use of emojis, they have expanded worldwide, enabling people to cross language barriers in conversation.

  “Although emoji have been a staple of texting teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the past year. Emoji have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expensive, and obsessively immediate,” Oxford said in a press release.

  “I love using emojis in texts and social media. They are so fun to use, and they allow me to express my emotions without being overly dramatic,” senior Martha Vann Alford said.

  Some individuals are concerned that this company didn’t in fact use an actual word for its word of the year. Some believe that Oxford desired to make an attention-grabbing choice to gain publicity.

  “It was rather interesting that they chose an emoji for the word of the year. It seems as though they just did this to gain readers and attention. They are not even planning on putting the emoji in the dictionary, so why would it be considered a word?” senior Alison Austin said.

  Last year’s word of the year was vape, and 2013’s word was selfie. It will be interesting to see how language will continue to change through the prevalence of technology in our daily lives.