Last year’s most popular word isn’t a word

From New York magazine: "According to the Global Language Monitor, a research organization that charts the language we're using, the most popular word of 2014 isn't even a word — it's an emoji. After analyzing social-media feeds, print and electronic publications, and blogs, the organization discovered that the heart emoji was the most used 'word' of 2014 — deployed billions of times a day, all over the world. Is it sad that our modern love of emoji usage is beginning to chip away at our ability to use real words in casual interactions?"