Sun, Mar 29, 2026 10:07
Mar 29, 2026
·
1 min read
I’ve recently gotten to know the work of “Gen Z linguist” Adam Aleksic. Here’s one interesting opinion piece on the use of emoji as punctuation and tone tags, like using the skull emoji to express humor or irony. He notes how these emoji meanings rapidly change, which he links to the linguistic concept of “semantic bleaching”. Overuse of an emoji leads to its original meaning becoming diluted, ultimately lost, and necessitating replacement.
Authors
Wouter Van Rossem is a researcher on the intersection between social science and computer science. He previously worked on the European Research Council (ERC) funded project, Processing Citizenship, where he investigated how data infrastructures for population processing co-produce citizens, Europe, and territory. He completed his PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and is still working on publications stemming from these impactful projects. In addition to his academic pursuits as a PhD at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, he brings a diverse background as a software engineer, having worked in various companies and at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy. His diverse background, spanning both theoretical and hands-on knowledge, reflects his keen interest in exploring the intricate interconnections between technology and society.