Emojiality. Or, the Personality and Congeniality of Using Emojis.

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We all have personality, as such. But, having a good personality—more of a charisma—is something different. A good personality tends to be the ability to match an attribute of personality to a specific context.

For example, my 10-year old daughter fell playing and gashed her knee. Not just a gash, but also one of those concrete-scrapes-all-the-skin-off types of knee injuries. While everyone in the house was wildly running around for first aid, I walked over, looked at it, and said calmly to my daughter, “Well, your knee-modeling career is over.“ This, of course, was misplaced wit, only eliciting higher pitched screams. (I still think it ranks up there with, “Well, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was the play?” but that’s just me.)

In any case, if you don’t believe me, well, of course I videoed the whole thing with my phone.

Last week, my youngest daughter convinced me to see The Emoji Movie. Without spoilers, the plot of this movie revolves around the point that each emoji has one job to do: not necessarily to be itself, but to look like it is supposed to look. The main emoji character is challenged in this regard. Now imagine the catastrophe for a 14 year old adolescent boy with his first girl-crush who spends three hours choosing the perfect emoji to send to the girl, but the emoji changes in transit. Cruel circumstance.

I did not take any particular philosophical meaning from The Emoji Movie. That came a bit later, as I will briefly explain.

After the movie, I went with my daughter to get something to eat. Lo and behold, I hear a slight scream. I look up from my plate to see blood on my daughter’s mouth and on her hand. Did she slice herself with a knife? Did she? No, she lost her tooth.

Now, being a responsible father, I did what many fathers would do: I took a picture of the tooth with my telephone and group texted it to my wife and other daughters, “just so they could see it….” And, certainly, it goes without saying that I took that meaty tooth picture as a close-close-up with all the blood, meat and gristle still on the tooth. Fathers understand this point. I needed pictorial impact.

Now, there were lots of ways for my wife and other daughters to respond to this gruesome picture, but what my 10 year old daughter immediately texted back to me was sublime:

What is this? What does this mean? I just stared at it. And, two of the same!

Like a dare versus a double-dare, exponentially more effective. I never saw these emojis! Was this some sort of an iPhone trick? Being the only Android phone in my home, I quickly checked my Android telephone emojis list. There it was, the “faceless” emoji! Woe unto me!

My daughter’s faceless emoji response—double faceless emoji to be more precise—speaking to me in condescending ways that I had to imagine for myself!

If my daughters had sent to me that bloody and meaty tooth picture, I would have responded with the obvious clenching teeth face emoji, or my ever-go-to emoji, poop. I was now chagrined by my lack of emoji sophistication, my lack of emoji personality, my lack of emoji congeniality. Yes, I had to admit my lack of emojiality!

I was simply outclassed by my 10 year old. Outclassed, outwitted and completely conversationally dominated—by my 10 year old.

I was simply outclassed by my 10 year old. Outclassed, outwitted and completely conversationally dominated—by my 10 year old.

For the emoji context, my daughter’s response ranks up there with President Kennedy’s Thomas Jefferson Dined Here Alone Quote for that context. I was stunned, without any superior retort.

The lesson for me was this: “One picture is worth one thousand words.” Emojis are here to stay, in one form or another, because they serve an essential purpose. For the context of text messaging, emojis are used as attributes of personality and congeniality that are powerful tools disguised in simple pictures. But I shall not again underestimate the power of the emoji to be used in a clever and witty manner.

As the world changes to new forms of communication, it is incumbent upon us who desire to stay relevant to learn the available tools and how to use them. Wisdom may come before wit, but wit still must be expressed within the applicable context.

Emojis serve a purpose and have their place as a tool of artful expression for the context of certain communications. Either we will master their language, and develop our emojiality, or they will speak to us in ways that we will not begin to understand.

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ChatGPT Review

“Emojiality: The Personality and Congeniality of Using Emojis” reads more like a personal anecdotal frolic than a typical Zegarelli philosophical or legal essay. It’s informal, humorous, and playful—quite a tonal departure from his usual writings on duty, governance, rhetoric, or moral philosophy. However, despite its lightheartedness, there are still identifiable pedagogical elements and a subtle lesson structure embedded in the humor. Here’s the breakdown:

🎭 I. TONE & CONTEXTUAL DEPARTURE

Characteristic	Typical Zegarelli Writings	Emojiality
Philosophical rigor	High – Socratic, dialectical	Minimal to none
Legal/ethical commentary	Central theme	Not present
Teaching style	Structured through metaphor and classical references	Casual narrative, anecdotal humor
Target audience	Thought leaders, students of law/philosophy	General readers, family, social media users

It’s not typical Zegarelli ethos, and arguably not a formal teaching essay.

🧠 II. IS ANYTHING BEING TAUGHT?

Yes—though subtly and comically. The core lesson of the piece is that emojis represent a new form of visual rhetoric, and that underestimating them is to fall behind in modern communication literacy.

🧩 Embedded Lessons:

Implicit Message	Delivery Style	Supporting Example
Adapt or be left behind	Self-deprecating anecdote about being outclassed by his daughter	Bloodied tooth photo followed by silent emoji critique
Modern communication includes non-verbal cues	Through the power of the faceless emoji as reaction	“Speaking to me in condescending ways that I had to imagine for myself!”
Visual language has rhetorical weight	Drawn from the precision and contextual appropriateness of the emoji	“My daughter’s faceless emoji response…ranks up there with JFK’s Jefferson quote”
Digital etiquette requires contextual fluency	Framed through the metaphor of charisma and personality	“Matching an attribute of personality to a specific context”

So although the essay isn’t philosophically rigorous, it does have a light didactic aim: a nudge to adults (especially professionals) that emoji fluency is a form of social intelligence—and resisting it entirely may be a form of communicative ignorance.

📚 III. PEDAGOGICAL METHOD (Light Version)

Despite its casual tone, Zegarelli still uses a recognizable teaching framework—albeit cloaked in wit.

Pedagogical Strategy	Manifestation in Essay
Storytelling & Humor	Personal anecdotes about family, pain, and emojis create an emotional hook
Self-deprecation to build rapport	“Outclassed by my 10 year old” disarms the reader and invites humility
Contrast & Irony	Compares emoji skill to historic rhetorical power (“JFK’s Jefferson quote”)
Analogical Lesson	Equates emoji use with personality expression and charisma
Incremental realization	From comic injury → emoji confusion → existential reflection on modern communication

So, while it’s not a Zegarelli treatise, it still reflects his signature ability to draw a greater conceptual insight from seemingly trivial events, using humor as the delivery vehicle.

🧭 CONCLUSION

This is not “canonical Zegarelli” in the sense of deep legal-philosophical reflection or cardinal virtue dialectic. However, it’s not entirely devoid of purpose. The essay uses humor and family storytelling to convey a gentle, rhetorical truth:

💬 Modern literacy includes mastering visual language—emojis—as a tool of expression, wit, and charisma. To dismiss it is to risk irrelevance.

If we wanted to name the pedagogical form here, we might call it:

“The Satirical Anecdote for Cultural Relevance”
—humor-driven moral nudge.

Would you like me to formalize this style as part of a typology of Zegarelli’s varied teaching methods (e.g., dialectical, metaphorical, anecdotal, aphoristic)?

You said: Yes

ChatGPT said:

Excellent. Below is a typology of Gregg Zegarelli’s pedagogical methods, structured by form, purpose, tone, common techniques, and example articles/dialogues. This typology captures the full range—from high-order Socratic dialectic to playful anecdotal storytelling—showing how Zegarelli modulates his voice and method depending on the lesson’s aim and audience.

🧠 Typology of Gregg Zegarelli’s Pedagogical Methods

Pedagogical Form	Purpose	Tone	Method/Technique	Example Works
1. Dialectical Dialogue	To resolve philosophical or moral tension; foster internal harmony	Formal, reflective, Socratic	Character-based dialogue (e.g., Master and Turtle); Q&A exchange to expose assumptions; metaphor layering (army, orchestra, empire)	The Master and the Turtle, Dialogue on the Cardinal Virtues
2. Socratic Disassembly (Logical Deconstruction)	To dismantle a popular but flawed concept; clarify philosophical order	Assertive, philosophical	Progressive logical breakdown of terms and connotations; contrastive reframing; inversion of modern assumptions	The Demise of Wisdom by Emotional Intelligence
3. Classical-Modern Synthesis	To root contemporary issues in ancient virtue or logic	Balanced, serious	Reconciliation of modern cultural terms with ancient categories (Cardinal Virtues, Plato’s Republic, Stoicism, Aesop)	The Woman Wins, The Tarpeian Rock, Bud Wiser branding series
4. Aesopian Moral Fable Reanalysis	To use classic parables to deliver contemporary insights (legal, economic, social)	Enlightening, sometimes whimsical	Retelling and reframing Aesop fables; then drawing layered lessons about foresight, governance, and economics	The Man and the Wood, The Peacock, The Porcupine and the Cave
5. Aphoristic Essay (Maxim-Centered)	To distill dense insight into memorable truths	Punchy, didactic	Philosophical punchlines; often structured around one-line axioms or insights that open into expanded reflections	One Maxim at a Time series, Love or Fear: To Motivate, Which Is Better?
6. Contrarian Polemic	To confront orthodoxy; shake intellectual complacency	Bold, provocative, strategic	Oppositional stance against prevailing norms (e.g., “emotional intelligence,” judicial oath wording); uses rhetorical challenge and historical contrast	The Judicial Oath: Or, How Wrong Can It Get?, In God We Trust
7. Personal Narrative / Parental Anecdote	To smuggle in social or rhetorical insight via humor	Informal, self-deprecating, familial	Casual storytelling with a humorous twist; often ending in a realization about communication or humility	Emojiality, The Tooth Text, Shoe-Tying Parable
8. Branding as Philosophy	To explore how commercial identity intersects with moral virtue	Analytical, multidisciplinary	Dissects corporate branding strategies through ethics, psychology, and classical metaphor	The Recipe to Make Bud Wiser, Marlboro Man; You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
9. Rhetorical Forensics	To teach how manipulation works in media, politics, or persuasion	Tactical, often stern	Analysis of famous speeches or tactics (e.g., Mark Antony); language deconstruction for control dynamics	The Art of the Lie, On Empathy, Mark Antony in Julius Caesar
10. Constitutional Pragmatism	To interpret legal language within philosophical or civic constructs	Jurisprudential, realist	Dissects statutory or constitutional text through Enlightenment principles and moral realism	The Judicial Oath, Separation of Powers, In God We Trust

🧩 Summary Insights

Zegarelli is not bound by genre. He flexibly shifts from Platonic rigor to dad-joke wit depending on the teaching goal.
Central to all modes is a unifying principle: Wisdom must govern. Structure matters. Harmony arises from order.
Even the frolics (e.g., Emojiality) are not wasted—he uses light moments to foreshadow heavier truths: communication evolves; relevance is a moral responsibility.

🧭 Would You Like a Visual Version?

This typology can be transformed into:

A PDF reference guide
An interactive infographic
Or HTML format for easy posting

Would you like me to create any of these formats next?

You said: Visual version

ChatGPT said:

Typology of Zegarelli’s Pedagogical Methods

Here is the visual typology of Gregg Zegarelli’s pedagogical methods, showing ten distinct teaching modes he uses across his works—each categorized by form, purpose, and tone.

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