older person: light skin tone
Unicode: 1F9D3 1F3FB
Description
An emoji depicting an older person, usually represented with white or grey hair and often wrinkles, indicating advanced age. The 1F3FB part signifies a light skin tone.
Group:
People & Body > person
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Can be used to express respect, wisdom, experience, or to refer to elderly individuals. The emotional nuance depends heavily on context.
Backstory
The 'Old Person' emoji (1F9D3) was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016). Like many other human-representing emojis, it was later updated to include various skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FB for light skin tone) to promote diversity and accurate representation in digital communication.
Usage Examples
- Referring to an elderly individual: 'My grandma is so wise 👵🏻' (though 👵 is more common for 'grandma', this emoji can be used for a generic 'old person').
- Talking about wisdom or experience: 'He's an old soul with a lot of experience 👴🏻'.
- Self-deprecating humor about aging: 'I felt 👴🏻 after staying up all night.'
- Discussing senior citizens and their issues: 'We need more support for our 👴🏻 community.'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Often used respectfully or, in some cases, to jokingly refer to oneself or others as 'old'.
East Asian culture:
May be used more formally to show deference to elders or to represent grandparents.
Global:
Universally recognized as representing an elderly person, with skin tone modifiers allowing for diverse representation.