What seems friendly to one person can come off as offensive or confusing to another — especially across age groups.
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They may be small and seemingly harmless, but emojis can carry more weight than you might guess. Sometimes they serve as nothing less than social hand grenades.
That’s the message from Unnur Magnúsdóttir, an Icelandic consultant with Dale Carnegie, who leads workshops on emoji use. Her focus is on helping people navigate the waters of emoji communications, especially in professional settings.
She explains that any given emoji one person sees as friendly or funny could strike someone else as confusing or even offensive.
Food-related emojis are particularly prone to misinterpretation, she says.
While they may appear innocent, some of them carry sexual innuendos that users may not be aware of, posing a risk in workplace communication.
Even the classic smiley face isn’t always safe territory: the degree of a smile and the shape of the emoji’s mouth can send subtly different signals, and generational divides only add to the confusion.
For example, older users may view the thumbs-up emoji as a sign of approval or encouragement. But to younger generations, it can seem dismissive or even passive-aggressive, highlighting a cultural shift in digital expression.
To explore this further, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV asked pedestrians to interpret a selection of emojis. The responses varied wildly. One person saw a certain emoji as joyful, while another thought it expressed sadness or irritation.
The exercise showed that in the world of digital communication, meaning isn’t fixed —and that even the simplest symbols can speak volumes.