Nope! I’m just smiling at you without using the cringy *smiles at you* asterisks. Now you understand my intentions and future smiles will be decipherable 🙂

I see how you might confused, but mine isn’t sideways, and it doesn’t have a nose, see? 🙂

I’m being dead serious :-(

I respectfully disagree. They’re useful for conveying tone or emotion without needing to be wordier to do so. You say it’s lazy, but I see efficiency. If you’re annoyed, it’s because you personally see reason to be annoyed. They’re not objectively annoying. Some people are obnoxious with it, sure, but that’s not the fault of the emojis themselves. Take it easy, man 🙂

I like all emotes. There really should be more of them ( ´◡‿ゝ◡`)

My initial thought. I’m sick of seeing the same desperate headline repeated ad nauseum. Either give me the news that he croaked, or I’m gonna stay assuming he’ll run in 2028, with a worryingly non-zero chance of winning. And he will continue not-dying throughout the remainder of that term.

These days, it’s used for emphasis to make sure you’re properly upset about it. Try using it in a context where age doesn’t matter, and you see how much implied severity it can add.

“I saw you speaking to a girl. What’s up with that?”

vs

“I saw you speaking to an underage girl. What’s up with that?”

One of them sounds much more like a crime.