The laughing crying emoji and skinny jeans are for millennials and boomers, according to Gen Z
Words by ITV News Multimedia Producer Ann Yip
Sorry, millennials and boomers, if you're still using the laughing crying emoji and wearing skinny jeans, you're old, according to Generation Z youngsters.
Millions of 'millennial v Gen Z' videos have been emerging on social media site TikTok for some time, with the kids making fun of the older generation over things like their love of Harry Potter.
In recent weeks, youngsters have been targeting millennials and boomers over what they wear and how they speak online.
A recent video that has gone viral shows TikTok user @momohkd instructing people to throw away their skinny jeans, burn them, or cut them and making them into something else.
Another millennial habit to come under fire is the use of the popular laughing crying emoji 😂 that millennials, and boomers, have been using for over a decade.A blog post by Jeremy Burge on Emojipedia reads: "It's common wisdom on TikTok that the laughing crying emoji is for boomers. And by boomers I mean anyone over the age of 35."
Even the 'roll on the floor laughing' emoji 🤣 has been deemed uncool, according to the TikTok emoji expert.
He continues to say the new "acceptable way to laugh" is by using the skull emoji 💀. It apparently means: "this is so funny I have died from laughter" or "I'm dead".
Bafflingly, social media users can even use the crying face emoji 😭 to convey laughter or overwhelming joy.
Another alternative is the grinning squinting face 😆 - which, in reality, has existed for even longer in its earliest version as "XD".
Mr Burge explains that alternatives to the laughing crying emoji are seen as "less cringey" as they are not overused.
He also suggests avoiding the need to show laughter in comments by making a joke in return or simply hitting the like button. He concludes his post by saying: "This is TikTok not Facebook, Grandpa."
Gen Z-ers are loosely defined as anyone born on or after 1997. They are the generation who grew up at a time when the internet and smart phones were already widely used.
Millennials are born between 1981 and 1996, according to Pew Research Center.
Many millennials, unlike Gen Z, remember the time of the dial-up internet and brick phones, when typing a text message was a more strenuous activity and when emojis did not exist.