Face with Tears of Joy is America's most popular emoji according to highly necessary research
Hey, another thing about emoji! (groan). But, in digging deeper into an ImproveNet piece, we found something pretty interesting: a methodology that made sense (yay!). They combed through 200 million tweets (from 1 July to 31 October) set the criteria for what would constitute a “good” tweet in the study and managed to drill down to almost 2.5 million legit tweets that show the “state of emoji” in the United States. As long as the tweet had emoji and mentioned a US location, it was fair game.
According to the research, “Face with Tears of Joy” topped the list, with it being 17 per cent of all emoji used the US. It was also the number one symbol for almost every state with the exception of Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut, who preferred the classic heath shape. Additionally, ‘ol “heart eyes” was most popular in California, Colorado, South Dakota and Vermont. Hawaii bucked all trends by keeping its “aloha” intact, by using a palm tree emoji.
The happiest place in America? That was Washington DC (huh?) with Montana in second place. The saddest place in America? Montana — with Washington DC in second place. The angriest place in America? Washington DC (that makes more sense). Vermont somehow managed to be the least happy and least sad place in America which, combined, could describe their mood as “meh."
Other interesting bits from the project:
- South Dakota is kinda horny, with them topping the number of emoji mentions of sex.
- New Jersey led the list in the LGBT conversation on Twitter.
- Nevada likes to talk about booze, money and gambling.
- Wyoming, strangely enough, likes cocktails.
- Alaska and Rhode Island keep it awfully white with skin tone modifiers.
- Most every state loves football in the US — though kayaking is big in Maine and Delaware. Soccer rules the roost in Washington DC.
