This is the inspiring tale about how Twitter came to the rescue of the poor, unpopular little aerial tramway emoji
In between your terrified primal tweet-screams at Trump’s latest nuclear threat and your ‘hilarious’ take on Mamma Mia 2, don’t forget that a fun way to spice up any social media post is to sprinkle in a few emojis.
There are more than 845 approved Unicode emojis to choose from on Twitter, so there’s something for every occasion and any mood.
But as you endlessly scroll for hours and compose your spicy tweets, spare a thought for the little emoji that could: the aerial tramway. For 77 days, this unloved symbol had the sad distinction as the least popular emoji on the social network according to the bot-powered Twitter account @leastUsedEmoji.
? (Aerial tramway) has been the least used emoji for 77 days
— Least Used Emoji Bot (@leastUsedEmoji) July 21, 2018
This means almost no-one was remembering to post about this little red transport fella. *Sheds solemn tear*
The updates for the account are pulled from the absolutely fascinating website emojitracker.com, which scans the usage of every single Twitter emoji in real time.
Once the internet cottoned-on, however, a social media campaign was soon launched to boost the little guy up in the rankings.
Of course it was. This is 2018 where we anthropomorphise Twitter emojis and try to ‘help’ them in an odd attempt to dull the existential terror and futility of being alive today. EVERYTHING’S FINE AND NORMAL!
And because I’m certain you’re gagging to know, the three most popular emojis on Twitter are currently the crying laughing emoji, the heart and (curiously) the recycling emoji.
Meanwhile, the least-popular emojis are the ABCD symbol, the aerial tramway and the non-potable water symbol.
We know this isn’t the most important news in the world right now but it’s just a nice little tale about a calming, stress-free corner of the internet. That’s all. Now carry on with your lives.
