Born to stir

Instant affect culture and the kitsch aesthetics of emoji images

Bibliographic Data

ID12998582
AuthorsAmin Heidari (0009-0009-9840-9691, Macquarie University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume17
Issue1
Publication date2025-12-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of AESTHETICS & CULTURE (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2000-4214 • E-ISSN: 2000-4214
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/20004214.2025.2588904
OpenAlexW7108318564
LanguageEN
References cited32

Emojis are small icons used across digital devices and platforms, and this essay explores their aesthetics to argue that they exemplify kitsch in contemporary digital culture. While visually comforting images have appeared in past eras, the digital environment intensifies this tendency through rapid circulation, immediate emotional impact, and widespread commodification, creating a distinct form of contemporary kitsch. In this instant affect culture, hyper-sentimentality operates alongside aesthetic reassurance, driving what might be called a hyper-kitsch digital economy. In line with this aesthetic spirit and built on conventional realism, emojis exhibit six key traits of kitsch: sentimentality, simplification, explicitness, commercialization, mass production, and decorative motifs. The essay examines how their kitschiness can perpetuate potentially problematic tendencies in digital communication, such as exaggerated reactivity and deceptive positivity, and concludes by reflecting on kitsch—and emojis’ kitschiness—as a response to the human desire for emotional safety and certainty

Affect (linguistics · Digital art · Digital culture · Digital media · Emoji · Instant · Kitsch · Perception · Digital Communication and Language · Multisensory perception and integration · Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access