Anyone who uses their phone to digitally pay their friends back knows the emoji shorthand: A pizza to pay for dinner. A coffee cup to cover a latte. Or a martini for those post-work cocktails.
Turns out those payment messages aren’t just between friends. They’re actually being tracked to figure out dining trends, consumer behavior, and of-the-moment cultural phenomena. And one of the places doing it is CashApp. This month, the popular digital wallet service compiled its first-ever “That’s Money” peer-to-peer trend report for 2024, measuring each of the emojis and expressions we use when we pay each other.
In today’s digital economy, “each transaction tells a story about how Americans speak, spend and feel — offering a unique view of the cultural Zeitgeist,” the CashApp report says.
The survey is divided by generations, which helps show how references and concerns differ between Gen Z (ages 18–29), Millennials (ages 30–44), …