A recent SwiftKey report on the use of emojis all around the world labelled Australia as the land of “vice and indulgences”. Why? Because Aussies use alcohol, junk food, drug and cigarette emojis twice as much as the rest of the world.
The UK company SwiftKey studied four months of data from messages sent by mobile phone users speaking 16 different languages. The messages included more than a billion emojis.
The most frequent icons used worldwide were happy faces, sad faces, hearts and hand gestures.
Australians in the study used twice as many alcohol-themed emojis than any other country in the world. The most popular icon used was the “cheers” emoji featuring clinking beer glasses, followed by wine, beer and cocktail icons.
Aussies also lead the pack in the “drugs” category” using the pill and cigarette icons 65% more than average.
We also used the most junk food emojis. The lollipop emoji was used more than five times more often than the rest of the world, followed by pizza, cake and chocolate.
Aussies, quite appropriately, also used the highest number of “sunny weather” emojis (alongside Arabic speakers).
Other Aussie favourites included clothing, rabbit, Christmas tree, snowman, jack-o-lantern and gift emojis.
While seemingly silly and fun, emojis are increasingly being studied as serious forms of communication , especially among millennials.
Also see: Julie Bishop gets her emoji on, shedding light on international relations and Tony Abbott’s spirit
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