Millennial Furries, is „xD, ^^, x3, etc“ Dead?

I became a furry in 2005 and putting some variation of :3 x3 xD ^^ and so on at the end of every sentence in casual conversation, became second nature. I still do it to this day.

However, I see almost no one else doing it anymore. Even people my age (31) seemed to have mostly stopped.

I’m trying to do it less to get with the times, but it’s hard. When I don’t do it, I get self conscious I’m coming off as cold or mean (because back then, you usually were being cold if you dropped your emotes). I also get a nagging feeling like people are being cold to me if they don’t do it either, even though I know it’s probably not the case.

Anyone else notice the decline of these furry emotes? Or am I just imagining it? x3, btw