The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends
The pandemic is creating a whole new language. According to the experts at Emojipedia, use of that squiggly germ emoji you’ve been using on WhatsApp all week has increased more than fivefold in less than two months.
The cartoon is no newbie to the iPhone keyboard — the friendly bacteria (official name: microbe) has been gracing emoji dictionaries since 2018 — but the recent global health crisis has sparked an inevitable (re)discovery, and Twitter has been quick to claim it as the virus’s own.
“Coronavirus has an emoji!” one user exclaimed last week. “The #coronavirus is spreading, but at least we got a new emoji,” remarked another.
Viral times call for viral measures. Microbes aren’t the only Covid-19-inspired addition to the collective emoji lexicon. Covid-19’s truest emoji form? The face with medical mask, as used by wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow in a recent Instagram post showing off her real-life bug-busting mask on a plane journey.
Use of the mask face on social media has also increased rapidly since January, according to Emojipedia, and true devotees aren’t stopping at just the one. Last week, one Twitter user shared a snap of Apple’s emoji bank with every face wearing a medical mask: masked drunk eyes (for that late-night Tube selfie); mask with glasses (for that working-from-home post); mask with shades (for those channelling Naomi Campbell at the airport).
Other emojis have been hoicked out of the archives too: the nauseated face (which accounts for 5.3 per cent of all coronavirus-related emoji uses, according to Emojipedia), sneezing face (5 per cent), soap (3.6 per cent) and vomiting (2.8 per cent) are also being used more frequently.
Syringes, sponges, ambulances, petri dishes and hot face emojis are other favourites, and designers have been quick to fill in any gaps. For 79p you can buy any of Line Store’s apocalyptic new emojis: hand washing and disinfectant spray are among recent additions to the site’s collection. Anti-viral behaviour applies to standard emoji etiquette, too. “The [handshake] emoji is cancelled,” one Twitter user wrote yesterday, and many agree: even emoji face palms and high-fives are off-limits in this clean new age of hand-sanitising and elbow-bumping.
Sister sent you a face palm emoji? Wind her up and ask if she’s washed her hands (for 20 seconds) first. Boyfriend sent you the kiss face emoji? Tease him and show
him ministers’ advice that you should only stay within two metres of someone for 15 minutes — even romance isn’t safe in this brave new world. “How long before we get an elbow bump emoji?” desperate Twitter users pleaded last night. Watch this (disinfected) space: the race is on.
