On TikTok, people will use bug emojis to visually “simulate” the act of dancing.
More often than not, users will combine the cricket and mosquito emojis like so:
🦗🦟🦗🦟🦗🦟
When a user places these two emojis side-by-side, it looks as though the insects are moving up and down. In other words, it kind of looks as if they are dancing.
A screenshot from TikTok. In this example, the user was replying to a music video. 🦟🦗🦟🦗🦟🦗🦟🦗
When we see trends like this for the first time, it is normal to wonder whether or not there is some sort of hidden deeper meaning. However, in this case, you can pretty much take it at face value.
All in all, this is basically the Gen-Z equivalent of posting 💃💃💃. Although there is more of a “throwing it back” / twerking aspect to it.
Another screenshot showing the insect emojis in use.
In the example above, the user is making the point that a lot concertgoers will spend more time recording the show on their cellphones than dancing and “being in the moment”.
It is worth pointing out that this trend may also appear on other apps such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
A tweet about the South Korean boy band iKON.
However, the meaning remains the same, regardless of which social media platform you see it on.