Okay, Alpha

To kick off a mini-lesson on adding thoughts and feelings to a personal narrative, I thought it would be fun to ask students what their favorite emoji is. And it was fun, but it also provided more anecdotal data for the question we are all asking, What the heck is up with these kids? 

I was curious about their interpretation of the emojis, and when they used them. As usual, one student tallied the responses on the whiteboard (creating a huge tally grid with lots of single hash marks), and another student read the replies from the chat, in this case translating each emoji into a word or two. The interpretation of some of the emojis was fascinating. For instance, they thought the raised eyebrow (one of my favorites) was confused, not skeptical. They also used the tears streaming emoji to show extreme amusement, choosing it over its actual laughing/crying kin. And they love the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil monkeys, even though they have never heard of the original trio. And Groucho Marx? Well, he's called the "uncle emoji". 

I couldn't resist that teachable moment! In every class, I pulled up pictures and cartoons of Groucho to show them the origin of the image. They saw the connection, but they didn't get its meaning. "But why is he an emoji?" someone asked. "And where is his cigar?" 

I didn't have a good answer.

But perhaps most notable is that over the two days I taught this activity, there were no trends. Out of the 90 sixth graders surveyed, the most popular emoji was the skull with 4 fans, but there must have been 65 other contenders with just a single vote. Maybe it's because there are so many images to choose from and we use them so frequently. 

Happily, though, the students were appreciative and accepting of each other's choices. I would almost say that they preferred novelty to consensus, which is an interesting concept when sharing one's opinion, unless kids just want to be unique in their signature response. Maybe they don't value precise communication as much as their brand.

At any rate, I'll keep collecting this data. With 30 years of field work, I might be just be among the more qualified anthropologists of the American tween. Plus? These kids are the vanguard of our latest generation: the first Alphas I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know.