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As I climb the ladder in years, I do find myself losing touch with the younger generation. Slice-of-life anime just doesn’t do it for me like giant robots used to, and I can’t fathom the appeal of tapioca (bubble tea). Then again, I didn’t understand it when it was popular twenty years ago either.

Luckily, the other side-effect of aging is that I find myself caring less and less about it too. Still, it’s important not to become laughably out of touch, so it’s good to have the occasional brush up lesson such as this list of the “top 10 emoji that reek of old guy” according to a survey of teenage girls.

Bear in mind that these are the types of emoji often used in Japanese texting which usually depict a face between two parenthesis making up the head, such as: ( •_•).

They are very easy to pull off with a Japanese keyboard, because all you have to do is type the associated word and various option will appear along with the choices for different Japanese scripts and kanji characters.

▼ For example, typing niko (smile) will yield these options.

So without further ado, here are the top ten old-guy-est emoji listed with their basic Japanese and English meanings.

#10

(>_<)

Meaning (JP/ENG): Yada! / Oh no!

#9

m(_ _)m

Meaning (JP/ENG): Gomen / I’m sorry

#8

(^o^)

Meaning (JP/ENG): Niko / Smile

#7

＼(^o^)／

Meaning (JP/ENG): Owatta! or Waaai! / Finished! or Oh boy!

#6

(´・ω・`)

Meaning (JP/ENG): Shobon / Dejection

#5

(*^_^*)

Meaning (JP/ENG): Wara / Smile

#4

Σ(￣。￣ﾉ)ﾉ

Meaning (JP/ENG): Bikkuri / Surprise

#3

(^_^;)

Meaning (JP/ENG): Ase / Sweat

#2

(^_−)−☆

Meaning (JP/ENG): Uinku / Wink

#1

ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ=3=3=3

Meaning (JP/ENG): Sutakora / In a hurry

According to Simeji, the company that held the survey, the most common reasons for these choices were that the emoji came across as “overplayed” or “oafish” — not at all the behavior of sensitive young ikemen of the 2010s.

Reaction online to this ranking has been mixed according to comments, many of which were simply emoji.

“ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ=3=3=3”
“Well, I am an old guy, so I can use them.”
“Great, so I can keep using (^^) and (≧∀≦) then?”
“(◉◞౪◟◉｀)”
“(´・ω・`)え～”
“I agree. And I’m old guy so I should know.”
“There’s an old guy at my company that uses all those.”
“I guess I’m an old guy then… (´・ω・`)”
“I’m surprised the cigarette smoking one wasn’t on the list.”
“Actually, these are kaomoji.”
“Since when did teenage girls become an authority on anything?”
“Isn’t using any emoji sort of showing one’s age. Everyone’s using Line stamps now.”

That last comment is probably onto something. In fact, in addition to conducting surveys such as this, Simeji is also announcing their new line of “old guy” stamps for the messaging app Line.

For that reason alone we should probably take these results with a grain of salt.

Still, just to be safe, I think I’ll look into getting some of those stamp things, starting with the Shinzo Abe, Russian leader, and messed-up Harry Potter ones. That should help me blend in with those damn kids.

Source: PR Times, Hachima Kiko
Images: SoraNews24
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