Happy 30th
Birthday Emoticon :-)
You're a jerk :)
You're a jerk.
I'm sorry I can't go tonight :(
I'm sorry I can't go tonight.
Got any plans tonight ;)
Got any plans tonight?
Good night :*
Good night
Love them or hate them those little emoticons (emotion icons) pack a powerful punch in the world of electronic messages. Can you believe that the emoticon just turned 30-years-old? Do
you remember the first time you saw an emoticon? I’m not even sure I knew what
the name was until a couple of years ago. I just thought of them as “sideways smiles.” They are so ingrained in me I even used a "sideways smile" in a birthday card I sent to a friend recently...that was hand written! She got a big kick out of that!
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| Harvey Ball's Smiley Face |
Did
you know that the yellow smiley face is thought to have
spurred the emoticon movement? The “smiley face” was created by freelance
artist Harvey Ball as a way to boost morale in an insurance company. It was a huge success! However, Scott Fahlman
is the first documented person to use the emoticon :-) and :-(. A smiley emoticon was to mean “a joke” and a
sad emoticon was to mean “no joke.” He felt it would help people understand sarcasm better in electronic messages.
An
emoticon’s presence sets the mood of a written message. So much of our communication is
non-verbal. Emoticons allow us to set
the temperament, emotion and feeling of a written message, and do it quickly. In
the 1990’s, AOL’s instant messenger launched an emoticon platform with 12
emoticons and with it digital sarcasm was launched. A phrase I hear often is, "I need a sarcasm font." Well, these little guys are just that!
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| Sarcasm Font at its best! |
Today,
emoticons can be written in a variety ways, and we have even found short-hand
emoticons by omitting the hyphen that is intended to be the nose. Sometimes, you see an equal sign instead of a
colon =). Sometimes it goes the other
direction (=. There are as many emoticons as there are human emotions.
Love
‘em or hate ‘em, they are here to stay. You know what else is handy about those
emoticons? You can say almost anything
and get away with it if you end it with the right emoticon ;-)
