This is Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year

When an emoji was announced as Oxford Dictionaries Word of The Year 2015, nobody was laughing till they had tears in their eyes!
“Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and use of the word emoji, increase hugely,” reasoned Oxford Dictionary. According to frequency and usage stats, the laughing emoji with tears was the most popular.
BUT IT’S NOT EVEN A WORD!
However, English speakers were aghast that the word of the year wasn’t a word at all! “That’s a first — Oxford Dictionaries word of the year is not a word! It’s an emoji. Leaves me speechless,” tweeted one Ravi Miglani. “Oxford dictionaries have named the crying-smiley-face as the word of the year... Oxford, you do know how words work, right?” tweeted Tossed, a UK-based eatery. “Oxford making the word of the year an emoji is like if they gave next year’s best picture Oscar to a magazine,” posted Phillipe Iujividin.
THE FUTURE OF LINGUISTICS?
Linguists, however, seemed to have found the selection of an emoji, interesting. “Really interesting expansion of our concept of what a language is…” tweeted one Kate Wiles. Perhaps, this is how we will communicate in times to come, suggested Joe Moran.
END OF THE WORLD!
“The beginning of the end?” asked Elysia Brenner on Twitter, reacting to the word of the year. For others, this could very well be the end of the world as we know it, with a lot of people on Twitter also calling it the “end of civilization”. “Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year is an emoji. I can sense the end of humanity,” wrote one Nidhi.
BUT WHY NOT?
For some though, the selection of an emoji as the word of the year made sense. “This doesn’t surprise me at all. I use it loads,” tweeted Kas Kaur. There were other perpectives on the selection as well. “In fairness to Oxford Dictionaries, when “bae” is one of your potential options I’d opt for an emoji as word of the year too,” posted Telly Addict, even though ‘bae’ was not among the words being considered for the Word of The Year.