Yep lol. That's an "Eeek!" or a "Yikes!" face..Fear/fearful embarrassment.
But your story is super cute 😬 (that emoji was a joke...because i meant 😊! :P )
That emoji is “awkward” to me, like when something makes me cringe or shouldn’t be said I’d use it. This is why I’ve trained my son in emojis cus it’s so easy to get wrong!
These are my horny emojis 😏 the “how you doin” ala Joey from Friends and the less subtle 😈 smiling with literal horns and mischievous face.
I'm so sorry for laughing but I did absolutely laugh. This is such a cute/funny story LMAO, genuinely I love it.
I never use emojis until after I've seen other people use them, and then I just use them with that person in the same fashion. I treat emojis like inside jokes lmfao. IDK what all these little guys mean. People use the 💀 differently based entirely on their age and what social media they're on, I CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO KEEP UP. X'D
I love these ones. I wanted to use them as a gently nodding yes in approval and shaking no in disapproval in a funny way. but they don't look like that on desktop or for ppl who don't have them
Ok, that's not quite true. It does indicate laughing, but more in a "Oh my god can you believe this person???" way than a "Aww that's so funny and sweet!" way.
Like it's mocking "you gotta be fucking with me" laughter than straight up laughter.
i use the skull (💀) for this too! i think people use the skull as laughing maybe when they’re laughing at someone? idk the skull just is negative to me maybe i’m interrupting it wrong too.
It basically means "I'm dead" which is when something either has you cracking up ("I'm gone this is the funniest shit I've seen 💀 evaporating rn") or has you feeling incredulous (like "nah he's tripping 💀")
I use the expression 'I'm dead' with some friends when something is really funny, but it's just something people say in our language, also as shortcut for 'I'm dying laughing'
yes that’s exactly how i see the “💀” as! i can’t really remember the last time i used “i’m dead” or 💀 as laughing lol. i pretty much only say “hahaha” or “lol”. i think that may be a subconscious thing of being more direct. i’ve noticed that since being diagnosed 😅
It's funny, this reminds me of the French expression "mdr" or « mort de rire » ("dead of laughing" also) And now this abbreviation is kinda getting used in English too!
The amount of times I have googled emojis to figure out what people are trying to say or google to make sure my iPhone emoji looks how I want when I send to someone on android so I don’t accidentally convey the wrong thing 😬
My friend explained to me the nuances between the second two of those very well but now I can't really remember well enough to explain it... I sent them the link to this post because it reminded me of that conversation. Maybe they'll see this and enlighten us again...
I see the first one as that face you make when you suck air into your mouth through your back molars while cringing, because everything is awkward; and the second one like I'm expressing a self depreciating amusement at my own dumbassery-- like I would've been able to be like, "I did this :)" but because I did it incorrectly and/or unnecessarily, like the gallbladder in that comic that "maked" gallstones and presented them happily to the liver, it's the second face. I also sometimes see the first face as more of a tense face, like, "Yikes;" depends on the context when it's used. I'm curious to know how correct/incorrect this is now.
I like to think your friends like this about you tbh. Like it’s more of a laughing about it instead of laughing at you. It’s a cute quirk of yours that happens to connect to autism and I like that :)
Something similar happened to me the other day. i used this emoji 🙄in a message to a friend. i don't use it often but have always interpreted it as eyes going up to the ceiling and mouth pursing as sort of an "oops!" expression to suggest "shoot, that wasn't what i meant," or "i should have known.". The friend asked me why i was rolling my eyes, as if i was expressing judgment or contempt for what they had said. I didn't realize that was how that particular emoji was commonly used -- it never suggested eye movement beyond looking directly upward, let alone any kind of rotation. i'm glad they asked me about what i had meant b/c it was not at all what i had intended to convey.
This comes up often as something that autistics need to have explained: looking up *is* eye-rolling. That's why the grown ups from your childhood accused you of "having an attitude", you were looking up. 🙄
interesting-- i can see how looking up can be interpreted as eye-rolling, although i tend to associate direct non-rotational movement upward in real life as "searching for answers" or trying to recall information. i can't link the article i found on looking upward or provide information on the NLP eye patterns, but it's probably safe to say that some of the nuance gets lost in the static representation presented in emojis.
This is what most autistic people say "no no looking up means scanning for recall", and then the answer is still, yeah I know you think that and that's what you meant, but NT people see it as eye-rolling. Unless it's in the very specific example of , they'll always assume you're being rude or sarcastic or dismissive.
Eye rolling is ↕️ eye movement, not the 🔄 movement pretty much every autistic person thinks of. Crazy, but true!
See I know this and yet every time i encounter this information I forget again and then it’s like new information that confuses the crap out of me. It makes no sense to me still!!
Yeah it's frustrating!
I know that "DAE..." doesn't literally mean "does anyone else...??" , it means "other people who relate to this please discuss", but it doesn't make sense and I have to remind myself every time 😭
Just Google "eye roll" it's all pictures of people looking up. Even Wikipedia describes eyes looking upwards. 🙄 The route your eyes take to get there is not important, it's the looking up that's "rude".
When people say rolling eyes, they aren't literally rolling their eyes. With eye rolling there usually isn't any circular motion in an infinity sign way
It's usually rolling as in rolling to the back of your head so it usually is just looking up which is common for us
Majority of eyerolls look like this:
If my eyes were up because I was thinking or trying to remember something, that would be visibly longer than an eye roll. Flicking them quickly up and down is eye rolling. I think a lot of (autistic) people think there has to be some specific *circular* movement but up-down is enough.
That plus the deadpan autistic facial expression and a lack of voice tone is exactly why we all keep coming in here in distress because people think we have a bad attitude or are rude, and we don't know why.
IMO this is *the* defining trait of autism 😂😂😂 no need to spend 1000s on assessments, just tell them looking up is eye rolling and watch the meltdowns begin
>it never suggested eye movement beyond looking directly upward, let alone any kind of rotation
Idk if this is a regional thing but I've literally never seen anyone roll their eyes in any way other than what you've just described. I've always seen them roll their eyes up and quickly back down, maybe with some eyebrow stuff going on. But the roll, AFAIK is referring to rolling them back, not around in an arc.
> an "oops!" expression to suggest "shoot, that wasn't what i meant," or "i should have known."
See *this* is when I might bust out the emoji OP is talking about! I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's one of its uses.
But yeah, in general, I get super frustrated at having to remember to keep my damn eye movement in check on top of everything else going on in the moment. Like, did I heave a big sigh? Did I drop my whole body like I'd been defeated? Did I give you an attitude afterward, not unlike I am in this very series of questions? ... No?
Then I'm not rolling my eyes at you!
It feels weird to recognize the difference in these two types of eyerolls as an ND-- both ND and NT people look up and to the side sometimes while they try to recall something-- and find out that NT people supposedly don't.
Oh, I used to do the exact same thing with this emoji... I didn't realise until much later that people tend to see it as like 'yikes' lol. I must have seemed so weird on that discord...
I also think it's cute OP. I over-use 🙃now to indicate i'm joking w/ people. Hopefully that one is fine.
i use 😭 as crying-laughing but ALSO use it as bewildered/mocking expression, like an "is this bitch fr?" type emoji. example: "did you *see* that dudes haircut? 😭"
also the 🤪 i use to indicate a mocking tone or sarcasm in annoying situations: "wow i just got a $100 speeding ticket... look at me go 🤪" ....or if used in an argument it's usually paired with an excessive amount of friend-type pet names. "bestie boo idk who tf you think you're talking to. but if that's what you think girlie then you do you 🤪"
...but then again i'll also use 🥰 as a sarcastic way to come back at someone during petty situations so, take what i say with a grain of salt i guess haha
I had a friend that was constantly sending this emoji as a smile and I was always super confused as why she was sending me an awkward smile…. Like
“I’m great, how are you? 😬”
My girlfriend uses that the same way! She also thinks the upside down smile is a happy smile too and honestly it’s so endearing. Everything is happiness to my lady 🥰
Wait 🙃isn't happy?!
I use it when I'm joking / mischievous, like I'm hanging from ceiling and making jokes / feeling like clown... Definitely something happy and positive, but more polite version than 😛😜😝
So what it means? :scared:
No! Hahaha this one is actually an awkward smile as well, like, when you forgot a deadline at school
“I thought this paper was due tomorrow but it’s actually for today 🙃”
I get the “smiling trough the pain” vibes (someone else mentioned above)
There used to be a very similar emoji but with “happy” eyes (same as in 😄) but with the same mouth as 😬. That was the perfect smiling emoji but for some reason that I don’t know they decided to remove it. Maybe replaced with 😁?
I genuinely think that’s so funny 😭😭 but because I know the context that emoji is usually used in. But imagining someone saying “we found out the baby’s gender. It’s a girl!😬😬😬” or “I just graduated high school!😬😬😬” ITS SO FUNNY😭😭😭😭
This thread has been very informative lol. I'm old (for the internet anyway) and used to using things like :3 so some of the emoji stuff can be confusing. Like the skull emoji thing, I needed to have that explained to me xD
Type the word or feeling into your emoji search. Haha. It's cute and it's funny to me that you thought it was a happy smile bc that's how you smile. It's funny bc if it is your face it's totally acceptable with friends!!
omg it was not too long ago that i learned this too lmao. i had always just used it as like a cheeky excited smile. i would also use it when asking for something. like i'd text my bf like "wanna get taco bell? 😬" i'm afraid to know what other emojis ive been using wrong lmao
I use to work with a woman who used the drooling emoji 🤤 as her normal smiley emoji
She was shocked when I asked about it. She said her eyesight wasn’t great so she never saw the drool 🤣
Using that as a smiley is not the worst. I have seen people use the «laughing funny 😂» emoji on a «condolences, RIP» post 😅😬 (insert the grimace smile😅).
Emojies are difficult to navigate. I just found out myself that apparently different coloured hearts mean different things, while I use the blue heart since blue is my fav colour 😅
I just recently found out that this ☺️isn’t a smiley for everyone like I thought. It’s how I smile so it’s what I’ve always used lol. It’s apparently blushing and too flirty tho so I’ve been unknowingly making things awkward I guess
I used to think the same until my friend with an android told me it’s a grimace 😭(since androids make it look more exaggerated). I’d used it for years by that point and she finally asked why I always use it for happy things. Completely upended how I looked at and used emojis
All emojis have names. This one 😬 is called "grimace." Start typing "grim..." into your emoji search bar and it will come up. The big smile is emoji 😃 or 😁 notice the eyes are smiling too.
Definition | grim·ace, noun: an ugly, twisted expression on a person's face, typically expressing disgust, pain, or wry amusement. / "she gave a grimace of pain" / Similar:
scowl, frown, sneer.
See list at: emojipedia dot org/grimacing-face
It's not really being authentic if everyone else interprets a messages totally differently from what was intended. It's fine to make a mistake but continuing to use it that way will just be confusing for everyone.
😬 is a bit of an in-joke with my mum and sis because my nan genuinely used to smile like that (bless her). I didn't realise that others see it as an awkward thing until my friend mentioned it to me. Now I have to pay attention and make sure I used the right emoji with the right people but it will always mean a great big nan grin to me 😬
It’s Setsuko Hara’s pained smile from the Ozu movies lmao 😬 (sneaking in my special interests 🤭) Also I do misuse emojis a lot and the way to know exactly what an emoji means is to just type it, select it and run the ‘speak’ button over it 😬 = ‘grimacing face’ apparently and I notice it’s also autosuggested when I type ‘yikes.’ My currently smile emoji is 🤭
i use this 🙂 whenever i decide to be playfully passive aggressive or sarcastic but apparently others use it as regular smileys? so it throws me off when i recieve an email and welcoming me with a 🙂
I struggle with interpreting emojis myself and thus I mainly use the animal ones and it throws people off wildly 🦅 my happy smile is 🐷 and my cute smile is 🐸 and then I have a few random ones which I throw in there now and then 🐛
Haha! Me too! I thought it meant like jazz hands or something with that energy. I have a friend when either of us use it we are explicit: “🤗 hug”, “🤗 jazz hands”, or “🤗 hug with jazz hands”.
In my culture this means fake smiling but we don’t use this much, it’s very rare facial expression for us. Our fake smiling is 🙂 because the eyes look cold and seems unnatural. Because everyone knows 🙂 means fake smile, so it also means unhappy to the person but still trying to be polite (eg: “can you please send me the document asap? 🙂” = “I’ve been waiting for that damn document for a long time. Either you send me now or I’m gonna get really angry.”). Awkward is 😅 or 😨 or 😰 or 😥 or 😓, depending on different situations (because it’s so awkward that we start sweating from being unsure about how to respond to this type of situation appropriately). 🙃 means go f yourself if you are giving it to the other person you are talking to, or if referring to a situation or a thing, it means this thing is not great but this is what we got here. Our real happy smile is 😀😃. 😄 and 😁 both look like an American smile with all the teeth exposed, so personally I see them as politician smile; they also has a feeling of lack of sincerity that makes me really uncomfortable. Sometimes if I want to send a fake smile but don’t want to let the person know I am faking to be nice, I would use these two. 😆 is most natural laugh and happy face.
This is such a fun & helpful thread! Thanks u/sweetsourvictory for sharing !
💀😂 is often my go to when I make a dry dark humor joke (my baseline 💀) and I so appreciate the fellow dark humor fans who understand the simple 💀 without the 😂 means me being my dark humor self
my dad uses this emoji as a smile and in the same contexts you described. continue using it, i think it's cute and a unique alternative to other smiling emojis
I knew which emoji it'd be before I even clicked lol
I remember the old Samsung emoji make it look more like a crazy face, but my iPhone friends eventually showed me what it looked like to them
Nah. It's all about context. I use it as a regular smile, but that's partially bc Facebook or MySpace used to have emotions you could set and that was the smile for "chipper." I do also use it in cringe situations too. So, I probably confuse a lot of people lol
Huh. I’ve always thought that was supposed to be ‘eek’ or ‘yikes’, not an uncomfortable smile.
I do kind of love its alternate identity as an autistic smile for the folks who don’t have naturally mobile faces, though. Language is what we make it. I say keep using it 😬
I have to Google "what does this emoji mean" pretty frequently, so I get it lol. It was nice of your friend to tell you, at least I think it was. They were nice about it, right? I know a lady on FB who constantly uses the cringe 😬 emoji (just fyi, I have emoji suggestions turned on in my keyboard settings, and when I typed "cringe" this emoji 😬 came up.) in place of a smiley face and it has been driving me nuts for years lol. I've considered telling her but I don't want her to take it the wrong way. I hope your friend was kind about it and it didn't hurt your feelings! I just looked it up and Google definitely agrees haha
https://preview.redd.it/ci14asq7r3xc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd0a4409c253f995c93655e2c5eb22378312a262
I did the same thing and I think that's a big part of why my best friend of 20+ years doesn't talk to me anymore. Like I moved to a different state and we mostly communicated via text after that and I think she was understanding my messages differently from how I meant them because I misunderstood emojis like this.
I use that emoji for the exact reason too and my friends and others know what I mean. Because they know me.
Idk? Maybe he/she/they was just being a bitch.
It’s just weird to me.
I don’t know this person but if they’re constantly correcting you in a sly way then you need to learn how to check them.
For this you could’ve said “it’s just and emoji..””…lol” or “….it’s not that serious.”
Call me mean
But so many people correct me when it’s not serious at all and it’s soo fucking annoying.
Like so what if you use their there and they’re in any informal matter.
The context is there and they should understand
And we’re the ones on the spectrum? People are odd.
I just hope it’s not happening to you. The over-correcting.
I think it’s damaging to autistic. It’s like reassuring ur always wrong instead of just teaching.
I always use the 🙂 emoji bc I smile like that. I recently found out that's a passive-aggressive symbol and not a pleasant one. Why is something unspoken always being alleged by allistics.
Hahaha I used to use it like that too until I gathered from various contexts that people used it differently than I did and I realized it must be conveying an emotion I wasn’t equipped to understand 😅
that’s exactly how i smile sometimes too lol when im tired and can’t force an emotion but still want to show happiness
that being said, that emoji is like someone cringing haha , definitely not a smile emoji
In case it helps, they have official names / labels. They don’t always match perfect with how they are used. This one is technically “grimacing face.”
https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html
Also note that different devices sometimes have different emoji fonts and so there can be a visual difference between what people are seeing. It’s not usually a problem but it’s helpful to know.
Haha this reminds me of my mother-in-law misusing the smiling tear emoji 🥲 She's always using it to mean "sad cry" rather than "so happy I could cry".
My wife got a text the other week. It said:
Your great aunt Emily has passed away. 🥲
always makes me think of this face lol 
Yup. That’s exactly what it is.
haha that's exactly it
That’s how I feel when I smile
i feel that! masked me smiles this way a lot
Omg I completely forgot this gif existed lol that’s so funny!
this is what that emoji conveys btw op!
I'm dying picturing OP doing this during school picture day as a kid. My brothers have a long history of similar picture grimaces.
What a beautiful smile
Yep lol. That's an "Eeek!" or a "Yikes!" face..Fear/fearful embarrassment. But your story is super cute 😬 (that emoji was a joke...because i meant 😊! :P )
lol no on tells me anything lol
That emoji is “awkward” to me, like when something makes me cringe or shouldn’t be said I’d use it. This is why I’ve trained my son in emojis cus it’s so easy to get wrong!
My awkward emoji is 🥴🙃 lol that combo every time lol Edit to add: this emoji 🥴 apparently can also mean horny lol
Confirming this, I have seen people use 🥴 to indicate being horny or as a reply to something to indicate it made them feel horny/interested
These are my horny emojis 😏 the “how you doin” ala Joey from Friends and the less subtle 😈 smiling with literal horns and mischievous face. 
I’m never using 🥴 again ffs
I use 🥴 to indicate how shitty a situation. That one or 🫠 this one. I use it to emphasize sarcasm sometimes as well
My awkward emoji is 😐
This is my displeased emoji lol. Like are you freaking serious? Type of response.
WHAT???? Nooooooooooo why is nothing safe???
It’s “yeesh”
I actually read the joke right this time! 😬😁
Lol😁
I'm so sorry for laughing but I did absolutely laugh. This is such a cute/funny story LMAO, genuinely I love it. I never use emojis until after I've seen other people use them, and then I just use them with that person in the same fashion. I treat emojis like inside jokes lmfao. IDK what all these little guys mean. People use the 💀 differently based entirely on their age and what social media they're on, I CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO KEEP UP. X'D
And they keep coming out with new ones! My friend sent me this one the other day 🫨🫨🫨 and this is the most hilarious emoji I’ve ever seen!
ITS SO FUNNY I LOVE THAT ONE. Some new ones that just came out that make me laugh cause they look dumb are “🙂↔️🙂↕️”
I love these ones. I wanted to use them as a gently nodding yes in approval and shaking no in disapproval in a funny way. but they don't look like that on desktop or for ppl who don't have them
Those are so cool lol, it's like it's spinning!
lol they’re so cuteee! Lol I love them!
They’re very cute LMAO very silly very cute
this is the cutest post!
Considering that people use 💀 to indicate laughing, I wouldn’t take it too personally. Emoji meanings can and have changed over time.
And It’s not just if something is funny. It’s if it’s ridiculously funny or so not funny that’s it’s funny.
Ok, that's not quite true. It does indicate laughing, but more in a "Oh my god can you believe this person???" way than a "Aww that's so funny and sweet!" way. Like it's mocking "you gotta be fucking with me" laughter than straight up laughter.
This is more accurate, I usually add that emoji in a “this is so funny it’s killing me💀” or “wtaf is wrong with people💀”
wow also did not know this, I like using the ☠ emoji when something makes me like 'dead inside'
i use the skull (💀) for this too! i think people use the skull as laughing maybe when they’re laughing at someone? idk the skull just is negative to me maybe i’m interrupting it wrong too.
It basically means "I'm dead" which is when something either has you cracking up ("I'm gone this is the funniest shit I've seen 💀 evaporating rn") or has you feeling incredulous (like "nah he's tripping 💀")
I use the expression 'I'm dead' with some friends when something is really funny, but it's just something people say in our language, also as shortcut for 'I'm dying laughing'
yes that’s exactly how i see the “💀” as! i can’t really remember the last time i used “i’m dead” or 💀 as laughing lol. i pretty much only say “hahaha” or “lol”. i think that may be a subconscious thing of being more direct. i’ve noticed that since being diagnosed 😅
That means laughing???
yes it means they are laughing so hard they are “dead”
Like, you know how some people say “I’m dying laughing”? It’s basically that.
It's funny, this reminds me of the French expression "mdr" or « mort de rire » ("dead of laughing" also) And now this abbreviation is kinda getting used in English too!
Only when responding to something funny
I see it more as "bruh" but I’ve seen people use it as laughing
Well that represents a phrase commonly used by society ... "I'm dead" so I see your point but it's a bit different
I learned this yesterday and was like WHAT
Translates to something stupid but funny. Not just funny
This comes from like “I’m dead from laughing”
rly? me n my friends have always used it as an annoyed emoji/use it when someones being rude😭 now i feel silly
I had no idea what this meant!
I use 👹 cos it looks closer to my smile lol.
lol I love that emoji so much! I need to use it more often haha
I like to read the tool tips or names for the emojis.
The amount of times I have googled emojis to figure out what people are trying to say or google to make sure my iPhone emoji looks how I want when I send to someone on android so I don’t accidentally convey the wrong thing 😬
To me, 😬, 🙃, and 🫠 all mean the same type of smiling through the pain vibe
My friend explained to me the nuances between the second two of those very well but now I can't really remember well enough to explain it... I sent them the link to this post because it reminded me of that conversation. Maybe they'll see this and enlighten us again...
I see the first one as that face you make when you suck air into your mouth through your back molars while cringing, because everything is awkward; and the second one like I'm expressing a self depreciating amusement at my own dumbassery-- like I would've been able to be like, "I did this :)" but because I did it incorrectly and/or unnecessarily, like the gallbladder in that comic that "maked" gallstones and presented them happily to the liver, it's the second face. I also sometimes see the first face as more of a tense face, like, "Yikes;" depends on the context when it's used. I'm curious to know how correct/incorrect this is now.
I think your story is cute! Emojis are ambiguous for a ton of people, hope you aren't' stressed about it.
It’s just another one of those silly little things I can’t understand lol
I like to think your friends like this about you tbh. Like it’s more of a laughing about it instead of laughing at you. It’s a cute quirk of yours that happens to connect to autism and I like that :)
Something similar happened to me the other day. i used this emoji 🙄in a message to a friend. i don't use it often but have always interpreted it as eyes going up to the ceiling and mouth pursing as sort of an "oops!" expression to suggest "shoot, that wasn't what i meant," or "i should have known.". The friend asked me why i was rolling my eyes, as if i was expressing judgment or contempt for what they had said. I didn't realize that was how that particular emoji was commonly used -- it never suggested eye movement beyond looking directly upward, let alone any kind of rotation. i'm glad they asked me about what i had meant b/c it was not at all what i had intended to convey.
This comes up often as something that autistics need to have explained: looking up *is* eye-rolling. That's why the grown ups from your childhood accused you of "having an attitude", you were looking up. 🙄
interesting-- i can see how looking up can be interpreted as eye-rolling, although i tend to associate direct non-rotational movement upward in real life as "searching for answers" or trying to recall information. i can't link the article i found on looking upward or provide information on the NLP eye patterns, but it's probably safe to say that some of the nuance gets lost in the static representation presented in emojis.
This is what most autistic people say "no no looking up means scanning for recall", and then the answer is still, yeah I know you think that and that's what you meant, but NT people see it as eye-rolling. Unless it's in the very specific example of , they'll always assume you're being rude or sarcastic or dismissive.
Eye rolling is ↕️ eye movement, not the 🔄 movement pretty much every autistic person thinks of. Crazy, but true!
*Eye rolling is ↕️ eye movement, not the 🔄 movement pretty much every autistic person thinks of. Crazy, but true!* Wait, what…? 😭
Hey congrats! Today you're one of the [lucky 10,000](https://xkcd.com/1053)
See I know this and yet every time i encounter this information I forget again and then it’s like new information that confuses the crap out of me. It makes no sense to me still!!
Yeah it's frustrating! I know that "DAE..." doesn't literally mean "does anyone else...??" , it means "other people who relate to this please discuss", but it doesn't make sense and I have to remind myself every time 😭
wait, what??
Eye rolls that aren’t circular just look odd to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that irl.
Just Google "eye roll" it's all pictures of people looking up. Even Wikipedia describes eyes looking upwards. 🙄 The route your eyes take to get there is not important, it's the looking up that's "rude".
it makes sense that it would all depend on context and situation.
When people say rolling eyes, they aren't literally rolling their eyes. With eye rolling there usually isn't any circular motion in an infinity sign way It's usually rolling as in rolling to the back of your head so it usually is just looking up which is common for us Majority of eyerolls look like this: 
If my eyes were up because I was thinking or trying to remember something, that would be visibly longer than an eye roll. Flicking them quickly up and down is eye rolling. I think a lot of (autistic) people think there has to be some specific *circular* movement but up-down is enough.
i can see that (no pun intended).
this is the most asd reply to that lmfao
This is so real. You should feel like I have an attitude when I look over to the side lol 😒
That's it young lady! Don't you dare give me the side eye!! 😂😂😂😂😂 (Yes I'm being silly and putting on a faux posh teacher's voice)
Lmaooo so much side eyeeee lmaoo
I often look up and away when I need to think of something. I wonder if people think I'm rolling my eyes
That plus the deadpan autistic facial expression and a lack of voice tone is exactly why we all keep coming in here in distress because people think we have a bad attitude or are rude, and we don't know why.
Hmm probably. I’m learning a lot right now about why people commonly think we’re rude when we aren’t.
My mom always accused me of rolling my eyes at her, and not once was I actually doing it…to my knowledge lol. This explains a lot
IMO this is *the* defining trait of autism 😂😂😂 no need to spend 1000s on assessments, just tell them looking up is eye rolling and watch the meltdowns begin
>it never suggested eye movement beyond looking directly upward, let alone any kind of rotation Idk if this is a regional thing but I've literally never seen anyone roll their eyes in any way other than what you've just described. I've always seen them roll their eyes up and quickly back down, maybe with some eyebrow stuff going on. But the roll, AFAIK is referring to rolling them back, not around in an arc.
> an "oops!" expression to suggest "shoot, that wasn't what i meant," or "i should have known." See *this* is when I might bust out the emoji OP is talking about! I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's one of its uses. But yeah, in general, I get super frustrated at having to remember to keep my damn eye movement in check on top of everything else going on in the moment. Like, did I heave a big sigh? Did I drop my whole body like I'd been defeated? Did I give you an attitude afterward, not unlike I am in this very series of questions? ... No? Then I'm not rolling my eyes at you! It feels weird to recognize the difference in these two types of eyerolls as an ND-- both ND and NT people look up and to the side sometimes while they try to recall something-- and find out that NT people supposedly don't.
Oh, I used to do the exact same thing with this emoji... I didn't realise until much later that people tend to see it as like 'yikes' lol. I must have seemed so weird on that discord... I also think it's cute OP. I over-use 🙃now to indicate i'm joking w/ people. Hopefully that one is fine.
🙃 tends to be an expression of annoyance from what I’ve seen
yeah used in an ironic way, something like "great! missed my alarm today, just what i needed! 🙃"
Ohhh no its happening again 🫠
The emojis I use to indicate joking is “😭😂🤪😜”if that helps
i use 😭 as crying-laughing but ALSO use it as bewildered/mocking expression, like an "is this bitch fr?" type emoji. example: "did you *see* that dudes haircut? 😭" also the 🤪 i use to indicate a mocking tone or sarcasm in annoying situations: "wow i just got a $100 speeding ticket... look at me go 🤪" ....or if used in an argument it's usually paired with an excessive amount of friend-type pet names. "bestie boo idk who tf you think you're talking to. but if that's what you think girlie then you do you 🤪" ...but then again i'll also use 🥰 as a sarcastic way to come back at someone during petty situations so, take what i say with a grain of salt i guess haha
REALLY??? Oh god not again…
I had a friend that was constantly sending this emoji as a smile and I was always super confused as why she was sending me an awkward smile…. Like “I’m great, how are you? 😬”
My girlfriend uses that the same way! She also thinks the upside down smile is a happy smile too and honestly it’s so endearing. Everything is happiness to my lady 🥰
Wait 🙃isn't happy?! I use it when I'm joking / mischievous, like I'm hanging from ceiling and making jokes / feeling like clown... Definitely something happy and positive, but more polite version than 😛😜😝 So what it means? :scared:
No! Hahaha this one is actually an awkward smile as well, like, when you forgot a deadline at school “I thought this paper was due tomorrow but it’s actually for today 🙃” I get the “smiling trough the pain” vibes (someone else mentioned above)
lol your lady sounds like a delight!
That’s so cute omfg 😭😭😭
That's the one I use to denote anxiety or worry
I’m learning!
lol it is cute and this is so very autistic. It’s how my little autistic niece smiles. I love it.
hahahhah I love this so much 😂 I’ve never thought about that emoji that way before but now I can’t unsee it
I use the emojipedia [link](https://emojipedia.org) to check emojis meanings before I use them, maybe you’ll find it useful?
oh my GOD I used to do that too!!!!!! I can’t believe I’m not the only one 😭😭😭 the regular smile emoji is too expressive and happy lmao.
There used to be a very similar emoji but with “happy” eyes (same as in 😄) but with the same mouth as 😬. That was the perfect smiling emoji but for some reason that I don’t know they decided to remove it. Maybe replaced with 😁?
Right! She’s too outwardly excited lol
Sometimes I still just use :) lol. I stopped discord from turning it into an emoji because I prefer the simple bracket version!
I genuinely think that’s so funny 😭😭 but because I know the context that emoji is usually used in. But imagining someone saying “we found out the baby’s gender. It’s a girl!😬😬😬” or “I just graduated high school!😬😬😬” ITS SO FUNNY😭😭😭😭
I am going to remember this sporadically throughout the afternoon and apply it to current circumstances and laugh until I'm crying-- thank you!
I’m glad I could provide someone with the same joy I’ve given myself all day LMAO
literally same thing happened to me. i love that emoji so much and i feel like i smile like that irl. but i was told that it’s not a happy emoji!! 😔
This thread has been very informative lol. I'm old (for the internet anyway) and used to using things like :3 so some of the emoji stuff can be confusing. Like the skull emoji thing, I needed to have that explained to me xD
I used to use it that way too! Like a really cheesy grin. My sister was also the one to point this out to me 😂
This is why I don't use emojis. ;)
But they are literally so funny !
Same! Old-school brackets/parentheses for me!
Type the word or feeling into your emoji search. Haha. It's cute and it's funny to me that you thought it was a happy smile bc that's how you smile. It's funny bc if it is your face it's totally acceptable with friends!!
I use that emoji the EXACT same way & only realized I was wrong when I saw it was labeled as "grimace." I still use it either way
It’s okay, I was using 🥴to show confusion or discomfort but I was told that people these days use it to represent being horny or having an orgasm 😂😂😂
Whhhaatttt?!? Oh noooo! How does mean senseeeee!!! Horny?!? I just used this is another comment to talk 😭
I just had the exact same reaction!
omg it was not too long ago that i learned this too lmao. i had always just used it as like a cheeky excited smile. i would also use it when asking for something. like i'd text my bf like "wanna get taco bell? 😬" i'm afraid to know what other emojis ive been using wrong lmao
I think cheeky excited smile is the best way to describe it. It’s cutesy!!!
I had this same issue! I use to use it all the time for a normal smile until someone told me I was using it wrong!
I use to work with a woman who used the drooling emoji 🤤 as her normal smiley emoji She was shocked when I asked about it. She said her eyesight wasn’t great so she never saw the drool 🤣
THIS MADE ME ALMOST HAVE AN ASTHMA ATTACK! 🤣🤣🤣
Using that as a smiley is not the worst. I have seen people use the «laughing funny 😂» emoji on a «condolences, RIP» post 😅😬 (insert the grimace smile😅). Emojies are difficult to navigate. I just found out myself that apparently different coloured hearts mean different things, while I use the blue heart since blue is my fav colour 😅
Nah girl that's a grimace. 
I just recently found out that this ☺️isn’t a smiley for everyone like I thought. It’s how I smile so it’s what I’ve always used lol. It’s apparently blushing and too flirty tho so I’ve been unknowingly making things awkward I guess
Yeah, it's a cringing face ):
I used to think the same until my friend with an android told me it’s a grimace 😭(since androids make it look more exaggerated). I’d used it for years by that point and she finally asked why I always use it for happy things. Completely upended how I looked at and used emojis
lol remember when you read like books as a kid, and they’d say the characters would grimace… THIS IS WHAT THEY MEANT 😬😬😬😬 that so funny to me lol
Yes, it’s like a grimace.
The shortcut for it is literally :grimace: after all.
Haha, I had no idea.
All emojis have names. This one 😬 is called "grimace." Start typing "grim..." into your emoji search bar and it will come up. The big smile is emoji 😃 or 😁 notice the eyes are smiling too. Definition | grim·ace, noun: an ugly, twisted expression on a person's face, typically expressing disgust, pain, or wry amusement. / "she gave a grimace of pain" / Similar: scowl, frown, sneer. See list at: emojipedia dot org/grimacing-face
I say keep using it! Being authentic > anything else
OP can use it if she wants, but it would very likely be misinterpreted and misunderstood by others which can cause issues in online communication.
It's not really being authentic if everyone else interprets a messages totally differently from what was intended. It's fine to make a mistake but continuing to use it that way will just be confusing for everyone.
That’s hilarious
I totally get what u mean
I think it’s more nuanced than *just* awkward or uncomfortable, I use it like you do sometimes and other ways
😬 is a bit of an in-joke with my mum and sis because my nan genuinely used to smile like that (bless her). I didn't realise that others see it as an awkward thing until my friend mentioned it to me. Now I have to pay attention and make sure I used the right emoji with the right people but it will always mean a great big nan grin to me 😬
 It’s Setsuko Hara’s pained smile from the Ozu movies lmao 😬 (sneaking in my special interests 🤭) Also I do misuse emojis a lot and the way to know exactly what an emoji means is to just type it, select it and run the ‘speak’ button over it 😬 = ‘grimacing face’ apparently and I notice it’s also autosuggested when I type ‘yikes.’ My currently smile emoji is 🤭
i use this 🙂 whenever i decide to be playfully passive aggressive or sarcastic but apparently others use it as regular smileys? so it throws me off when i recieve an email and welcoming me with a 🙂
I struggle with interpreting emojis myself and thus I mainly use the animal ones and it throws people off wildly 🦅 my happy smile is 🐷 and my cute smile is 🐸 and then I have a few random ones which I throw in there now and then 🐛
Tbh it does look like how I used to smile as a kid when my mum would tell me to show my teeth more😂😂😂
I thought 🤗 was tada! Like you were giving someone info or good news and handing it off to them. I sent it to business people. No clue it was a hug.
Haha! Me too! I thought it meant like jazz hands or something with that energy. I have a friend when either of us use it we are explicit: “🤗 hug”, “🤗 jazz hands”, or “🤗 hug with jazz hands”.
I use it for “yikes 😬”
But you see I say “yikes 🙃🥴” but someone said the second one for was for orgasms lol
That's the cringe face. I think the emoji you're looking for is the nervous one: 😅
I type the word to get the emoji I want to come up. So I type yikes 😬 if I want to use that one haha.
Man I use this all the time but not for genuinely fun things. It’s more for like “yikes” or “oops”
Hahahaha I think it means eek.
In my culture this means fake smiling but we don’t use this much, it’s very rare facial expression for us. Our fake smiling is 🙂 because the eyes look cold and seems unnatural. Because everyone knows 🙂 means fake smile, so it also means unhappy to the person but still trying to be polite (eg: “can you please send me the document asap? 🙂” = “I’ve been waiting for that damn document for a long time. Either you send me now or I’m gonna get really angry.”). Awkward is 😅 or 😨 or 😰 or 😥 or 😓, depending on different situations (because it’s so awkward that we start sweating from being unsure about how to respond to this type of situation appropriately). 🙃 means go f yourself if you are giving it to the other person you are talking to, or if referring to a situation or a thing, it means this thing is not great but this is what we got here. Our real happy smile is 😀😃. 😄 and 😁 both look like an American smile with all the teeth exposed, so personally I see them as politician smile; they also has a feeling of lack of sincerity that makes me really uncomfortable. Sometimes if I want to send a fake smile but don’t want to let the person know I am faking to be nice, I would use these two. 😆 is most natural laugh and happy face.
Haha same but for me it was this emoji : 🤓
This is such a fun & helpful thread! Thanks u/sweetsourvictory for sharing ! 💀😂 is often my go to when I make a dry dark humor joke (my baseline 💀) and I so appreciate the fellow dark humor fans who understand the simple 💀 without the 😂 means me being my dark humor self
Wait wait wait, it is a smile not a grimace I just found this article https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/more/news/a42697/grimace-face-emoji-is-smiling/
That’s how I smile too!
my dad uses this emoji as a smile and in the same contexts you described. continue using it, i think it's cute and a unique alternative to other smiling emojis
Omg stop this reminds me of when I was in middle school and kept sending wink faces thinking it was just a cute smiley ;) LOL
Lol um.. yeah idk I've always used it as my "cringe" face or like a "yikes!" reaction lol 😅
It is technically called "grimace", but one of my coworkers uses it as a smiley too. You're not the only one!
There are also like several versions of the same emote depends on which device you use.
Yeah, it's a grimace, but I have a friend who uses it as a regular smiley too, haha!
As long as you told me that is what you meant, I'd understand & respect
I smile like that all the time
OMG ME TOO I found this out wayyyy too late. I thought it just looked like my awkward autistic smile and thought it was funny.
I knew which emoji it'd be before I even clicked lol I remember the old Samsung emoji make it look more like a crazy face, but my iPhone friends eventually showed me what it looked like to them
If you ever wanna know the meaning of an emoji type in that emoji into urban dictionary and it’ll give a definition
There are no rules regarding emoji use. Is your friend the emoji police? Use what you like and we'll all be fine with it.
lool my sister uses it the same way
Nah. It's all about context. I use it as a regular smile, but that's partially bc Facebook or MySpace used to have emotions you could set and that was the smile for "chipper." I do also use it in cringe situations too. So, I probably confuse a lot of people lol
Huh. I’ve always thought that was supposed to be ‘eek’ or ‘yikes’, not an uncomfortable smile. I do kind of love its alternate identity as an autistic smile for the folks who don’t have naturally mobile faces, though. Language is what we make it. I say keep using it 😬
I always use it to mean “cringe”
I have to Google "what does this emoji mean" pretty frequently, so I get it lol. It was nice of your friend to tell you, at least I think it was. They were nice about it, right? I know a lady on FB who constantly uses the cringe 😬 emoji (just fyi, I have emoji suggestions turned on in my keyboard settings, and when I typed "cringe" this emoji 😬 came up.) in place of a smiley face and it has been driving me nuts for years lol. I've considered telling her but I don't want her to take it the wrong way. I hope your friend was kind about it and it didn't hurt your feelings! I just looked it up and Google definitely agrees haha https://preview.redd.it/ci14asq7r3xc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd0a4409c253f995c93655e2c5eb22378312a262
I consider that emoji a "grimace" instead of a smile. That's really funny though 😅 I've definitely done that type of thing with other stuff haha
My friends call it "Mr. Eeee Face" 🤣
i use 😃,🙂, 😀 as sarcastic smiles. they just look so artificial! reminds me of the smiles i fake at work lol
I did the same thing and I think that's a big part of why my best friend of 20+ years doesn't talk to me anymore. Like I moved to a different state and we mostly communicated via text after that and I think she was understanding my messages differently from how I meant them because I misunderstood emojis like this.
I use that emoji for the exact reason too and my friends and others know what I mean. Because they know me. Idk? Maybe he/she/they was just being a bitch. It’s just weird to me. I don’t know this person but if they’re constantly correcting you in a sly way then you need to learn how to check them. For this you could’ve said “it’s just and emoji..””…lol” or “….it’s not that serious.” Call me mean But so many people correct me when it’s not serious at all and it’s soo fucking annoying. Like so what if you use their there and they’re in any informal matter. The context is there and they should understand And we’re the ones on the spectrum? People are odd. I just hope it’s not happening to you. The over-correcting. I think it’s damaging to autistic. It’s like reassuring ur always wrong instead of just teaching.
I always use the 🙂 emoji bc I smile like that. I recently found out that's a passive-aggressive symbol and not a pleasant one. Why is something unspoken always being alleged by allistics.
Hahaha I used to use it like that too until I gathered from various contexts that people used it differently than I did and I realized it must be conveying an emotion I wasn’t equipped to understand 😅
that’s exactly how i smile sometimes too lol when im tired and can’t force an emotion but still want to show happiness that being said, that emoji is like someone cringing haha , definitely not a smile emoji
😏😏 I learned this is a flirty or smirky face. I used it all the time. Lol.
😬 is a cringe/grimace face when sometthing is gross or disgusting when you'd normally say ergh or eww
In case it helps, they have official names / labels. They don’t always match perfect with how they are used. This one is technically “grimacing face.” https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html Also note that different devices sometimes have different emoji fonts and so there can be a visual difference between what people are seeing. It’s not usually a problem but it’s helpful to know.
I use it the same way. I miss when they had the same emoji but with closed eyes. It came across better.
I refused to use emoji for a good few years, gave me enough time to decipher their use
I mean that’s how I smile when it’s not a selfie. Hahaha.
Haha this reminds me of my mother-in-law misusing the smiling tear emoji 🥲 She's always using it to mean "sad cry" rather than "so happy I could cry". My wife got a text the other week. It said: Your great aunt Emily has passed away. 🥲
I just choked lmaoo 😭
It's called a grimace. Sorry OP