What are your favorite emojis?
This prompt puts me in mind of all the recent coverage of the Netflix (fictional drama), Adolescence. One of the many things that struck me about the media discourse was how shocking people found the idea that young people used emojis to communicate, and that sometimes the emojis had sinister meanings or undertones.
This came as no surprise to me, as this has been a feature of many groups online (from incel to QAnon), and in far less sinister circles, it is an obvious feature of social media culture and online forums and group chats. If we look into our own history, people have always used code as a form of communication (from messages placed in newspapers to the Enigma device).
What struck me about the Adolescence farrago is that I found it odd that anyone was surprised by any of it, but this may be due to the type of work I do and being in tune with many of the issues portrayed in the fictional show. The keen-eyed among you will note I keep referring to it as fiction because, despite the best efforts of the writers to position it as an educational resource, it is a drama that has taken narrative decisions to make it appealing to a TV audience.
That’s why my opinion is that while it is good that people are talking about misogyny and violence against women and girls, we should not be showing it in schools; instead, we should be leaning into existing programmes and services that already offer wonderful, trauma-informed advice and support to children and schools. This is where the funding should go—to support and boost the ability of these already established, evidence-based, and evaluated services to increase their reach and impact, and to leave Stephen Graham to the job he does so well: creating incredible fictional dramas.
The World Outside the Window 