Miscellany № 108: emoji, for all the wrong reasons

Emoji have been in the news recently for a host of reasons, most of them bad — but all of them, I would submit, worthy of our attention.

First up is a Netflix series called Adolescence that has been garnering plaudits in the UK and elsewhere since it went on air last month. I won’t spoil the plot, but I note that Emojipedia has joined the clamour with a blog post titled “Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’, Emoji Codes & Emoji Repurposing”. In it, Keith Broni explores the programme’s use of an “emoji code”...