[A_D_E_P_T]

> before AI what were the connotations of the sparkle emoji ?

It generally stood for either:

- fireworks (combined with other firework emojis,)

- birthdays/festivals (next to the birthday cake and "party popper" thing emoji,)

- magic (next to the wizard or wand, which features almost identical sparkles)

It was pretty festive. Now it's just AI, lol.

[sweetjuly]

there was also a small trend a while ago of using it to bracket tongue and cheek/sarcastic phrases, for example:

> setting your computer on fire for (sparkle) self care (sparkle)