“Do you get it? Intention, Misunderstanding, and Ordinary Language in Adolescence (Philip Barantini, 2025)”
Thursday, 05 February 2026, 16:30-18:30
Senate House, Room 264
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In a much discussed scene from 2025’s Netflix limited series, Adolescence (Philip Barantini), a father and son discuss the meaning of a purple heart emoji. The teenager explains to his middle-aged father that while the icon has a certain semiotic stability, amongst his peers, its meaning differs according to its colour. The ambiguity of this chain captures a problem that the philosopher Stanley Cavell is attuned to: the collapse of shared criteria for meaning. Emojis, though ubiquitous, lack stable grammar. Their interpretation is radically dependent on the individual’s participation in a shared system of meaning-making. To the father, a purple heart signals his love. To Adam, it is a sexual overture.
At the time of its release, much of the public discourse the 2025 Netflix limited series Adolescence, directed by Philip Barantini, centred on the so-called “secret” language of emojis used by the show’s teen characters: a code of communication to which the adult world is not party. Taking this scene as a starting point, this paper will explore the ways in which philosophical questions of intention, meaning, and acknowledgment are visually staged in Adolescence, drawing in particular on Cavell’s interpretation of ordinary language philosophy – and the profound, often painful, ethical implications embedded in the act of speaking and being understood.
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Following NHS guidance, all attendees are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated (including boosters) against Covid-19, unless medically exempt. Our group is diverse; please continue to be considerate of those who wear face coverings and those who don’t. Thank you.