Endless Thread - There's a new emoji for sadness :(

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

What does the thumbs-up emoji mean to you? Or the wilted rose? The meanings of emojis are limitless and can differ across social groups or generations. On this episode of Endless Thread, Ben and Amory discuss two stories about how certain emojis have taken on surprising meanings. Show notes: * Here’s why the Aerial Tramway Emoji is suddenly in every YouTube comment section (daily dot) *Alright guys.. What is does this emoji mean and why is it used so much? (Reddit)

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touch with us about and you want to be careful with how you share that information and protected, That's how you get in touch. WBR SecureTips at Proton.m.m. or call us or text signal 646-456-9095. Ben Brock Johnson, we are gathered here today to discuss emojis. M-O-G. Dearly beloved, Damary Severson, my co-stununendless thread, yes we are. Oh no, the bots got you. They got me? Yeah, they got me.

The bots be getting everybody. All right, before we talk about emojis or emoji, we need to discuss the elephant emoji in the room, which is... What's that? Is it emoji or emojis? I know. And I feel very GIF versus GIF about this, which is like, it was always GIF. And I tried to do the right thing for a long time.

No, no. And then I just, I was like, wow, nobody's going with this. Even the guy who created it said it was Jif, but nope, that's not what it is. It's GIF. Did he really? Yes. He went to his grave saying Jif. I'm not even kidding.

I'm dead serious. But the Jiff is a peanut butter people won out like myself and GIF is now standard. Okay. GIF is standard. We did an episode in years past where we referred to emojis plural as emoji. And some people were not happy about it. So that makes discussing emojis in this episode a little uncomfortable, but we're going to work past it because we have some little stories for you.

Yes, we do. The story that I have to bring to you today, which is just a little, it's just a little one. Much like an emoji. It's about the meaning of emojis and like how it's different for different people. So one of the things that really rocked my world, I learned it, which I mean, to most of our listeners is like, yeah, okay, obviously grandpa, the thumb emoji could be flippant. Like, it could be like kind of like a middle finger emoji, but it's a thumb emoji. You know what I mean? Like people give you the thumbs up. That's not like,

all right or like, cool. It's like, okay, buddy. You know what I mean? It has an edge to it. Yeah, I use that on the road behind the wheel. Mm. Yep. When you're tempted to give the other finger instead you're just like cool bud cool yeah that kind of broke my brain because i was like oh my god like are all these people that are giving me thumbs up emoji are they mad at me actually like it's one of those things where it's like it totally changes how you understand the way you've been communicating with people right and i will say that i described this recently to a friend who is like who's probably like an older generation than me and they were like are you serious?

Like they were like also very concerned to have learned this. They were like, oh my God, really? It means that? And I was like, well, I think it kind of depends on like who you're talking to and what the conversation is. But like we think of emoji as having like kind of like a single meaning, right? It's a sort of simple, almost like binary thing where it's like this is what it means or it doesn't mean that. But emoji maybe contains some small multitudes as well. So I would like to ask you, what emoji do you use when you are sad?

What's your I'm sad or that's sad or sad reaction emoji? Describe the sad situation you're looking for in particular because it really varies. I feel like when something's actually deeply sad or tragic, you like can't really use an emoji. But if it's like, no, the, the, this. this thing we were going to go to is going to get rained out, you can just use the, like, the crying emoji. Well, crying for me is usually, like, an I'm sad, but it's not like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Do you have, like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry? Probably just, like, a heart.

Maybe, like, a, you know, if it's just like a friend or something, you might send, a yellow heart, which I think means care, or I interpret it as care. Okay, so you're getting close. I think a lot of people have used the broken heart. Oh, okay. To say like, okay, that makes my heartbreak or that's heartbreaking or that's sad. Like, that's been a common emoji that has been used to denote, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, that's so sad or whatever, right? Mm-hmm.

So this has been common for a long time, but I think one of the weird things that is happening now is there's this delineation between generations where younger generations, they're like, oh, no, I mean, this has always happened, right? But they sort of, like, reject the thing that's, like, over, and they create a new version, right? So, like, that happens with slang. It happens with all different ways of being in the world.

Sure. But the broken heart has fallen out of favor as a sadness emoji. and it has been, I think, over time, replaced. And my question to you is, do you know what it's been replaced with? Maybe, like, the thumbs down, something kind of flippant? The, like, heart hands, the heart made by hands emoji?

No. No. Is it something ridiculous? Well, let me walk you through it. Okay. So as near as I can tell, Hart wasn't actually the first one. There's at least one tweet from a long time ago suggesting that it started with the laughing crying emoji. Yep.

Then it was the actual crying tears streaming down the face emoji. Then it was the skull emoji. Then it was the broken heart emoji. More recently, it has become the wilted flower. Do you know this one? Yeah. Like a rose that's dying. Yeah.

So that is near as I can tell. That became for a while the wilted flower emoji or the dead rose emoji, the dead flower emoji was really the chosen emoji to convey sadness replacing the broken heart. But now we've kind of like gone even past that. And now it is the almost dead battery or low battery emoji. Low battery.

I got to look this up. Yeah. Do you know that one? I do now. Little battery with red on the bottom. Yeah. Huh. And that means.

like sadness, heartbreak? Yes. I can't keep up. I know. It's crazy, right? So, like, I just think that this is an interesting way in which we all, like, communicate with each other, but also, like, certain generations communicate with each other. And it's this way in which, again, we're, like, less and less able to always kind of communicate the same things to each other with the same language, if that makes sense. I'm still, this is, like, endless threat ancient history, but I'm still using this. the like the red-faced sweaty person to convey cleaning out the garage.

Not like horny or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You got to catch up, man. You might be sending some real mixed messages. Be careful. I'm still using eggplants to mean my garden's doing well. Oh, no, no, no.

You're still sending peaches to people saying, would you like to pick some peaches with me? Yeah. Yeah, all those times I do that. Oh, boy. Well, I just, you know, Amory, I just wanted to catch you up. Thank you. Hopefully now you're caught up. So dying rose and low battery emoji, which I think is like something about that speaks to this sort of like technological on we that we all are now experiencing.

You know what I mean? Where it's like, I'm a robot that is sad because my battery is low. Like I feel like we're now like fully. The singularity is near. Yeah, the singularity is near in which sadness is represented by a low battery. But I just wanted to catch you up and make sure that you understood where we're at. And, you know, I don't know if you want to say that that makes you sad enough to send the low battery emoji to me. But I just wanted you to, you know, to be caught up with the youths and how they're communicating.

Few. Thank you. It's so grateful. Well, in a minute, I too will catch you up on something you need to know that the youths are doing with emojis. Oh, boy. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics. Country music. Hockey. Sex. Love bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers.

And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab. Adventures on the edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get your podcast. Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? A podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University. On the show, host Kurt Nickish asks the thorny questions necessary for this moment about the role business plays in society. Questions like, why are executives paid so much? Why is innovation in health care so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And of course, is business broken? Follow is business broken wherever you get your podcasts. There is something powerful about the sound of the human voice. Beautifully produced audio has the unique power to connect and inspire. Tell your organization's story with a custom

podcast from City Space Productions, the creative studio from WBUR's business partnerships team. Become a thought leader. Recruit new talent. Reach new audiences. Whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org slash creative studio. Okay. So similarly to your story, Ben, Okay. Mine has to do with how, we'll say the youths, specifically people who are regulars of YouTube shorts, who watch a bunch of YouTube shorts, are using a particular emoji. Are you a YouTube short person? You know, I have to say, like, I only really use YouTube for food.

And I've started slipping into the YouTube shorts for food things, but I still don't feel like it. gives me quite enough information to actually make food. So I would say no. I'm not a big YouTube shorts person. Okay. So this started for me with a Reddit post, an out-of-the-loop post, which I love out-of-the-loop that subreddit because usually I, too, am out-of-the-loop. Right, right.

And someone posted, this was about a month ago at the time that we're recording this, they said, what's going on with a particular emotion? on a lot of YouTube shorts. They've been seeing this particular emoji on a lot of YouTube shorts. So I'm going to text you the emoji that this person was asking about. Oh, dude.

So this is... You're beside yourself. I'm beside myself because, no, so this, I was going to talk to you about this. So this is the tram, the... The aerial tramway. The aerial tramway emoji. Describe it for the people, will you?

It's secure. cable and hanging off the cable is a little cute little car with little windows and a little door on it. Yeah. You could get into the aerial tramway emoji and zip on down to some exotic location that you're on your way to. Or up the mountain to go skiing or snowboarding or whatever it may be. Yeah, that's what it looks like. Yep. Okay.

And you were going to say something about it? Well, what I was going to say, and again, this connects to what we were talking about before, is that, younger generations, like, they are very purposefully, basically, as near as I can tell. And again, I don't think that this is, like, anything new necessarily, but it plays out in new ways on the internet. They're basically, like, all these other emojis are over. They're, like, played out. This new emoji, like, nobody's using this one enough. We got to start using this one.

Right. And so I believe that this is this not the least used emoji? Or was it? Yes and no Okay, so I'm going to send you I'm going to send you the YouTube short That ends up being the answer to this person's question Okay

What is with everybody using this emoji On YouTube shorts? Okay So the origin which Redditors chimed in And eventually got to the answer here Is it stems from a particular YouTuber named John Castorline Posts this video

It's very short This is the least used emoji in the world We're going to change that and I need your help. I came up with a plan where we can make this emoji one of the most used emojis, at least on YouTube. And it's pretty simple. Instead of using laughing emojis from now on, replace it with this. And if someone doesn't know why you're doing it, don't tell them. Let's just confuse every person who hasn't seen this video.

Okay. This is, it's John's fault. This emoji is everywhere, but also unexplained. Yes. So this YouTuber is believed to be the origin of when people started swapping out the crying, laughing emoji with the aerial tramway. And as he said, he does not want people to explain themselves, just post it and make everyone feel a little nuts. So, yeah. But going back to the thesis here at the top, that this is the least used emoji. The reason why I say that that is partially true is that I

suspect that he got that information from a Twitter account that is now defunct called least used emoji bot. I was not aware of this Twitter account when it was active. Okay. So this Twitter account tweeted out multiple times a day what the least used emoji was. However, it was the least used emoji

on Twitter. That's the only way that it was able to measure what the least used emoji was. It wasn't across all platforms, all social media sites, all the whole internet. This is all. too. It's from 2018.

Exactly. It is old, yeah. And the least used emoji, as of when this account went, you know, defunct, stopped posting, which was in August of 2020, it looks like. The least used emoji was actually something else. It was this. Do you recognize this? No. Do you know what this thing is called?

I guess describe it first. Okay. So it looks like, it's sort of confusing. Like it has a musical, like what looks like it maybe is an eighth note. Yes. Musical note. Yep, in the upper right corner. It has, yeah, it's like sort of a four, it's a grid of four.

So it has a musical note in the upper right. And below that musical note is a percentage sign. Then to the left of that percentage sign is an ampersand. And then above that is the weird one that I don't know if I've ever seen this before. I don't understand it. It looks like an equals sign, but the bottom equals sign line has a thing sticking out of it that makes that look like a T. Yeah.

So it's like a T with a top. T with the top, sure. So according to Emojipedia, that is the Japanese postal mark. Huh? I don't know. I'm not sure. But that's what emojipedia refers to it as. And this whole emoji is referring to it.

is referred to as the input symbol for symbols. Okay. Which I have to admit, I only partially understand. I think it's like maybe this is a key command shortcut thing that you would hit if you wanted to type a symbol as opposed to typing a number or a letter. Oh, okay. Emojopedia says, intended to be used on a software key. board or other input screen to enable symbol input as opposed to alphabetical or numeric input.

But what we can agree on is that understandably, it makes sense that this would not be a popular emoji. But before that, there was a period in time where the tramway, the aerial tramway, was the least use emoji for quite a while. And this got some transportation enthusiasts in a tizzy because they they wanted to sort of save the tramway emoji from being the least used emoji. There was a spinoff Twitter account called Ariel Tramway Enthusiast. And it says, you know, tramway hate will not be tolerated here. Some fans of other emoji have taken notice of this account. Just know this is a tramway only zone.

Wow. Yep. there was a group that took off called the New Urbanist Memes for Transit-oriented Teens. They called themselves Numtots, which stands for New Urbanist Memes for Transit Oriented Teens. Obviously. And they took to Twitter in support of the aerial tramway. So there was a sort of effort to give the aerial tramway emoji a new prominence on social media back in 2018. Huh.

But it's not until this second attempt now on YouTube shorts, or I'm sure this guy posts on, you know, TikTok and other mediums as well. But it's this newer 2025, seven years later attempt after the aerial tramway was likely no longer the least popular emoji by a couple years, according to the Twitter account. Okay. But what is actually the least popular emoji? I don't think anyone can say that because even this least popular emoji Twitter account was only measuring on Twitter. And we're not in a post-Twitter. I mean, we are in a post-Twitter, but we're not in a post-X world. But it does feel like, you know, social media is a whole different ballgame these days.

Yeah, it's interesting to think about. Number one, love a tramway. Big fan. Do you like a tramway? I do and I don't. I'm afraid of heights. I'm afraid of heights. Okay, fair, fair.

So I'm not anti-Tramway. But can't you just imagine yourself in Switzerland sipping a vegan hot chocolate going up the mountain? Yes. I've been on, I like a finicular, which I know is not a tramway, But I will go on these things, even though they make me nervous, because I know that they give you an experience and a literal perspective that you wouldn't have otherwise.

Wait, a finicular. Yeah. You don't know a finicular? All I know is that when you said that, I just thought of that song that's like, Finiculis, Finicula, Finnicula, Finnicula. And is that connected to finicular? Is that what they actually say in that song? I think so.

Well, a finicular is like a single little train car, like a little train nugget going up a rail up a mountain. That's a finicular. A train nugget. I think we should rename it train nugget. I mean, finicular is pretty good. I'll also say that while looking into this, I happened upon the deadline for the Unicode Consortium's new emoji submissions.

So I think we touched on this in a previous episode that in order to have a new emoji, you have to submit an application to the Unicode Consortium, this nonprofit that oversees all of the emojis. And their deadline is July 31st, everyone. So if you have an emoji idea, you got to submit that idea before July 31st. Get that. Train Nugget emoji in there now. Whatever you do. I kind of want listeners to send us their favorite. Just hit us over email or comment on our subreddit with just like the single or maybe a couple of your favorite underutilized emoji.

Yeah. What's your campaign? What would your campaign for an emoji? be about. Yeah. What emoji do you think? It's underutilized. Right.

Yeah. Deserves the aerial tramway treatment. I'm into it. Send us your emojis. Send us your emojis. Your emojis. Endless Threat is a production of WBUR in Boston. This episode was co-hosted by myself, Ben Jiff Johnson.

And me, Amory Giff, Sievertson. It was produced. by a train nugget pushing up that mountain for Annie Monaghan. Our editor is Meg Kramer, Mix and Sound Design by Emily Jenkowski. The rest of our team is Dean Russell, Grace Tatter, our managing producer, Sumitajoshi, and our production manager, Paul Vikis. If you have an untold history, an unsolved mystery,

some other wild story from the internet that you want us to tell, and of course, an emoji that you want to create, that you want to promote, that you want to platform. Hit us up. Endless thread at wbUR.org.