The changing of the guard in terms of generational control of "what's cool" is certainly complete - Millennials are out, Gen Z is in. And as such, they're bringing their new definitions of cool to countless things - music, fashion, movies, TV, pop culture, even (as The Olds freak out about how "nobody wants to work anymore") workplace culture.

Oh, yeah, and what emojis mean.

   @genwhyscarlett  #emojis #genzhumor #millennials #millennialsoftiktok #themoreyouknow ♬ original sound - Scarlett    

 @genwhyscarlett Gen Z Emojis Part 2! Thank you guys for following!!! #emoji #genzhumor #millennials #themoreyouknow ♬ original sound - Scarlett  

Of course, each new generation is going to redefine their patterns of speech, in person and over text. Did Millennials more or less invent chatspeak? Yes. But that doesn't mean they own it, of course. (How one would even begin to exert that kind of control is a mystery to me. An official emoji dictionary, perhaps? (No. Please don't do that. That is shudder-inducing levels of cringe.))

Still, as one of the in-betweeniest in-betweens this generational gap has to offer - I was born in 1995, and was part of the 95/96 class, where we end up splitting hairs over whether you remember 9/11 and what shows you watched in early childhood to try to determine whether you're actually closer to being Gen Z or a Millennial - I have to ask:

Is it REALLY necessary to take regular, innoccuous emojis and make them passive aggressive?

I'm talking, specifically, about the thumbs up emoji, which I recently replaced as a catch-all "okay" after I found out the "okay" emoji was somehow associated with white supremacy. (Modern lingustics is a beautiful mess, isn't it?)

So I'm going to do something I literally remember promising my teenage self that I would never do - I'm making a New Guide for What Emojis Mean To The Youth. It's cringe, yes. But please, have pity on us in-between Zillennials - we're so confused. Let us have this.

Translating Between Gen Z and Millennial Emojis - Best To Worst

I'm giving credit where credit is due here - the above Tiktok attributed a few of these emojis to Gen Z, but I KNOW the credit belongs to the kids from those bridge years of 1997-1994.

So I'm going to rank all these new emojis by how perfect and necessary I think they were. This is entirely arbitrary. You're welcome.

Beautiful New Inventions:

This emoji has a new name to go along with its sentiment, and it's actually beautiful: It's called the Standing Man, and it's used in situations where the person feels so awkward that they don't know what to do other than stand there like a video game NPC that didn't fully load.

Bravo, Gen Z.

We had no unorthodox use for the cherry emoji, either - but to Gen Z, it means "titties," which I can 100% get behind.

To Gen Z, this emoji can either mean "sounds good!" or "oooh!" which is actually a really clever usage for it. I'm pretty sure nobody had any use for this emoji before that, aside from maybe to denote an unenthusiastic kiss? Maybe?

"When in doubt, dance out." In other words, this emoji means "I'm leaving." It's certainly a festive way to leave a room.

(This one is personal, but I have a bone to pick with my high school group chats: I TRIED TO USE THIS IN THIS CONTEXT FOR A PERIOD OF TIME AND NONE OF YOU GOT IT. I was an artist before my time.)

Either of these two emojis are used to say "laughing so hard I died." The crossbones are for extra emphasis. This one isn't too hard a translation, since Millenials have been saying "I'm dead" out loud for pretty much the same reason for AT LEAST five years.

Pretty Good, But A Little Confusing:

This emoji means, to quote the quote from the TikTok, "I'm killing myself tonight," which is definitely very different than the way I use it, which is usually to say that I'm touched.

But I guess to them it's like the more advanced version of the upside down smiley - which, if you were a teenager or college student during the pandemic, I can understand why you would need.

This one is "ashamed" or "shy," which I think was something we were already using it for when I was still in school. I did NOT, however, see it used as "horny," which Gen Z apparently does sometimes associate with it.

(What was wrong with the eggplant and peach emojis, guys?)

For some reason this happy lil guy is used to say "f*** this situation." We don't disagree with the fact that that was a sentiment that needed an emoji attached...but why the cowboy? What'd he do?

(Admittedly, the only time I ever used that emoji before was in group chats for the production of Oklahoma! I was in, but still.)

V Cool, But Gen Z Didn't Invent This:

THIS IS WHERE I PUT MY FOOT DOWN. This emoji DOES mean "f*** my life" but it is a Zillennial invention. The emoji itself came out in 2015, my first year of college, I remember specifically because of how often my best friends used it in that exact context when they were overworked.

At the very least, this was a collaborative effort. I know at least a few Millenials know what this one means.

Also, though, Gen Z sometimes uses this in chatspeak to denote sexual innuendo, which older generations definitely do not do.

This one is "I'm stressed, but it's okay." Which is, I'm pretty sure, what it has always meant.

Although, Gen Z may want to be aware that older generations also use this one to mean "my bad."

According to the above TikTok, this emoji is specifically referred to as "silly goofy mood." I'm not sure how that differs from the traditional use of the emoji, because I THINK that's what it was always used for. (Right? Millennials?)

The double eye emoji functions as a way to say "I'm listening, go on," or "I'm keeping my eye on this' or "I see you," but Gen Z definitely doesn't get credit for it.

Case in point: the band Bowling for Soup has been commenting this on literally every announcement of a rock festival on Facebook that has happened since they announced the When We Were Young Festival, as a way to say "Hey, is anybody going to ask us to come to one of these?" (If you're unfamiliar, Bowling for Soup is a band most popular with Millennials (though the acutal band members are a bit older than that.))

The Picture's The Same, But The Meaning's Changed:

This is racist now, apparently. This one's not generational though - this is just something that white supremacist asshats apparently co-opted, much like poor Pepe the Frog.

To Millennials, the innocent thumbs up emoji is just that: An OK, or acknowledgement of some kind. But to Gen Z, it's apparently hella passive aggressive.

Yaaaaay. This isn't going to cause communication problems at ALL.

Millennials and Zillennials use this as the catch-all crying/sobbing emoji, but Gen Z specifically uses it to mean "crying from embarrassment." There seems to be a common theme with the fingers emoji and the big eyes emoji - of course, being a teenager/young adult is laced with embarrassment by design, so that's not exactly surprising.

(Kinda makes all the emojis with the dual "horny" meaning make sense too...)

To most people, this is a proud grin.

To Gen Z, it's cringe. Any emoji with teeth? Cringe. Immediately given away as an impostor. Straight to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

This is also cringe. "Mind blown" is too dramatic. (Admittedly, that was a very Millennial turn of phrase.)

I Hate This. Take It Back Please.

As far as I was aware, this emoji is like saying "pretty please?" I really hope that I never sent this to my younger siblings without thinking, though, because this apparently means "horny" for some reason.

Oh, or it's supposed to represent innocence. Y'know. Either or.

For some reason this emoji could either mean "I'm lying" or "I'm not lying." I think it's related to the phrase "cap" or "no cap" which, admittedly, I barely understand.

Means nothing. The kids are trying to use it to troll us, to suss out who's reading these articles and who's an emoji natural.

(Hey guys, some of us are just socially awkward and trying to translate. Don't hate. Someday you, too, will understand. Someday your stuff, too, will be cringe. Enjoy your throne while it lasts.)