smart home lifestyle

September 29, 2007

happy birthday :-) love them or hate them, emoticons are 25 years old

The year was 1982. I was 12. “Thriller” sold 20 million albums. Cats opened on Broadway. We met Sam and Diane on Cheers. A Cali team won the super bowl. And the sideways smile was born. It was a happy, happy year.

Turn that frown upside down :-(

Even when you mean what you say, e-mails and texts can still be a little hard to “read.” The solution? Emoticons. Emoticons combine emotions and icons into a face-picture made out of symbols from our computer keyboard. Emoticons put our facial expressions down on paper.

Scott E. Falman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University was the first to use the :-).

"It has been fascinating to watch this phenomenon grow from a little message I tossed off in 10 minutes to something that has spread all around the world," Fahlman was quoted as saying in a university statement. "I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started."

Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways."

Say Cheese :-/

On the flip side, do emoticons keep us and our writing from being taken seriously?

“Many people have denounced the very idea of the smiley face, pointing out that good writers should have no need to explicitly label their humorous comments,” wrote Falman. “Shakespeare and Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain got along just fine without this. And by labeling the remarks that are not meant to be taken seriously, we spoil the joke. In satirical writing, half the fun is in never being quite sure whether the author is serious or not.”

Good point, but face it, e-mails and texts aren’t great literary works, just fast, simple ways to communicate.

So, when is “smiling” OK? Here are my rules. 1) Man to man smiles are frowned upon. 2) First impressions are everything. Men- never smile at a woman you just met. 3) Smiles should be used sparingly- is anyone ever really THAT happy? 4) Never smile at work, unless you’re in marketing. 5) Smiles are like perfume, get your signature smile and use it ;-).

Here are some commonly used emoticons to add more meaning to your messages.

:-) Basic happy-face for joking or smiling
;-) Winking- for teasing
:-D Laughing hard
:-I Indifferent- like whatever
I-0 Bored- yawning
I-I Asleep- way beyond bored
:-/ Skeptical
:-( Frowning
>:-( Angry
:-0 Uh-oh- in shock
:-X My lips are sealed
}:-) Devilish smile
0:-) Angelic smile
:-[ Yikes, scary

And if you’re left handed (-:

Author: Diana Kostigen, Marketing/Public Relations Director, Comtec