When a match sends you an emoji, do you feel 😍, or is it a 🚩? Whatever your reaction is, there’s no denying that emojis have reshaped how we communicate while dating. This week’s insight looks at how Revelers use emojis when messaging matches.
Who uses emojis?
Revelers don’t flood their chats with icons. But usage differs across groups. Graduate women are the heaviest emoji users—15% of their messages contain one—while undergrad men are the lightest, at just 6%. That pattern fits broader research showing that women tend to use emojis more often and and view them more positively than men.1,2,3
Laughter across Generations
The biggest differences show up in what kinds of emojis people use, especially to signal laughter. Graduate students use 😂 (crying laughing) while undergrads overwhelmingly prefer 😭 (crying face). That aligns with wider generational divides. Younger people often see 😂 as outdated or “cringe” and instead use 😭 or 💀to signal humor—much to the confusion of older generations.
These habits illustrate Gen Z’s broader approach to emojis (who make up the majority of the undergraduate population at University of Michigan). They use them more creatively and non-literally: 44% of Gen Zs say they deploy emojis in complex ways, compared with just 17% of millennials (who make up larger proportions of the grad student population). Older generations reporting even lower percentages.4,5,6
Consensus and Comedy
Another contrast: undergraduates converge on a single “laughter emoji,” while graduate students spread theirs out. Among grads, 😅leads at 10% barely edging out 😂 at 9%. Undergrads, by contrast, use 😭 in nearly one third of emoji-containing messages. Either way, Revelers’ emoji use indicates lots of (virtual) laughter across groups!
- Prada, M., Rodrigues, D. L., Garrido, M. V., Lopes, D., Cavalheiro, B., & Gaspar, R. (2018). Motives, frequency and attitudes toward emoji and emoticon use. Telematics and Informatics, 35(7), 1925-1934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.06.005
- Kennison, S. M., Hurtado Morales, M. A., Nelson, K. E., & Chan-Tin, E. (2025). Gender differences in emoji use: relationships with personality traits. Current Psychology, 44(11), 9865-9875. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07816-w
- Koch, T. K., Romero, P., & Stachl, C. (2022). Age and gender in language, emoji, and emoticon usage in instant messages. Computers in Human Behavior, 126, 106990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106990
- Schoichet, C. E. (2024, July 17). We asked how you use emojis. Here’s how different generations responded. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/17/us/emoji-day-use-across-generations-cec/index.html
- Wu, D., Zhang, X., & Zhang, X. (2024). Is there an intergenerational discrepancy in the comprehension and aesthetic preference regarding emoji usage? Evidence from WeChat. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1424728. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1424728
- Zahra, T., & Ahmed, S. (2025). Generational differences in emoji interpretation: A study of Millennial, Gen Z, and Baby Boomers. Advanced Social Sciences Archive Journal, 3(2), 857-864.
Note: The statistics reported in this post are based on a snapshot of all active user profiles taken on September 3rd, 2025. To preserve confidentiality, we do not report on categories with fewer than 50 users. At this time, the nonbinary gender category falls below that threshold and is therefore omitted from Insight reports. Also, our current pool is overwhelmingly heterosexual, so these results mostly reflect their behaviors and preferences. As our community grows, we’ll be able to explore and report on patterns across different orientations.