Kierkegaard Against Your Emojis

How we’re hinging all hopes of human communion on a couple yellow smiley faces lol 😬

“In Germany they even have phrase-books for the use of lovers, and it will end with lovers sitting together, talking anonymously.”

— Søren Kierkegaard

An emoji is a symbol used to express meaning. Emojis are different from typed words in that while most typing in the 21st century requires the rental of software, hardware, data, and electricity to allow a person access to the textable alphabet, the use of emoji requires the rental — from Apple, Samsung, Facebook, and others — of expression itself. To use Apple’s smiley-face to say “I am happy” is to pay Apple to express happiness for you.

Rented expression is a minor delight because it seems to solve the crisis of depersonalization haunting the digital age. The purpose of all communication is communion between persons, but the isolation of the person, into text on a screen, strips communication of almost all style — that is, it strips words of personal presence. Without the uniqueness of handwriting, the physical fact of the letter; without the flesh and the natural voice; without the gradual revelation of a working mind that…