This emoji shows a person pointing to their ear, signaling deafness, hard-of-hearing identity, or simply “I can’t hear you, bestie.” It’s used proudly for Deaf culture and accessibility talk (think: captions on, interpreters appreciated), but also pops up in memes when your AirPods die, the club speakers are at 11, or you’re pretending not to hear the haters. You’ll see it in tweets about concert aftermath (“ears ringing, who said what?”), texts asking people to speak up, and posts reminding everyone to turn on subtitles—especially around the International Day of Sign Languages in late September. It can land serious, supportive, or playfully dramatic, depending on the vibe.
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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.
