Tech Trend 247

Remember when the Oxford English Dictionary declared "😂 " Word of the Year 2015? It seemed novel at the time but it's only grown in legitimacy since and with it, real-time trackers that log emoji use universally.  

But enough universality. A creative agency in Sydney wants to get specific, tracking the use of emojis across the island continent that is Australia, as it happens.

The Works have launched a real-time data tracker to monitor the way Australians use emoji. While tracking the Top 50 live, they've also compiled lists of what emoji the nation is using most to spice up their text life.

Top of the list, unsurprisingly is the cry-laughing yellow face. 😂. Presumably because Australia is a country of jokers. In second place is the anatomically incorrect but well-meaning red heart. ❤️

Agency partner, Douglas Nicol likened the use of emoji with a dialectical evolution of language, saying in a statement, "It's the natural evolution of the language ... In the same way as we have regional dialectics, we are seeing evidence of regional use of particular emoji."

Aside from monitoring which emoji are most frequently shared, the tracker also calculates which state has the widest breadth of emoji use, and which are strongly used just in that state. For example South Australia with it's many vineyards seems to enjoy the red wine emoji, while Canberra (somewhat alarmingly) enjoys the coffee and soon-to-be replaced pistol emoji.

Dr Suresh Sood of University of Technology Sydney's Advanced Analytics Institute, sees emoji has a new medium with an old message. "This is not new but a continuance of expressing oneself through the power of myth as expressed by Joseph Campbell, Jung and Shakespeare," he said. 

Take that, emoji haters.