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This activity is about reflecting upon the impact of intention and context. The intended and/or perceived meaning of a message can change radically from the context and use of complementary signals such as grammar and emojis. The participants are asked to discuss how they perceive texts differently due to the varying emojis.
Share this activity with your youth and aks them to position themselves according the different context, by moving the emoji to the left, if it is something OK to say, or to the right, if it is never OK to say.
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Even though there are clear similarities between offline and online hate speech, the transition from one arena to the other makes a big difference. Form is one way it can be different; offline hate speech is most often committed through vocal speech, while online hate speech is frequently in written form or visual creations such as pictures, memes, GIFs, etc. This shape shift, so to speak, expands the opportunities and risks of quickly sharing and storing stuff. For example, it is very easy to plug-and-play a hateful meme in different contexts. When used in different situations, a meme can change its meaning, making it more or less hateful depending on the person who sees it, the situation, and the intention behind it.
As the topic of hate speech in general may elevate arousal and spur disagreement, it is important to set a scene of seriousness and empathy.
A way to determine how they perceive the different examples, you can make them reflect on the following questions:
Afterwards, let the participants message one another simple texts and discuss how the sender and recipient respectively intended and perceived the message. First, the recipient tells about their perception, then the sender tells about his/her intention. If some of the participants do not feel comfortable taking part, it is fine to be exempted from this activity.
