“Emoticon” is really an abbreviation for emotion icon. Emoticons are representations, either typed or graphical, that express a particular mood or emotion. They are usually put after a particular sentence to convey an emotion, not only happy or sad but confused, startled, puzzled or angry. Typically these emoticons are used in programs such as Microsoft or Yahoo Messenger, blogs, forums, e-mails, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and in many other internet communications.
Writers have been trying to express emotion from the written word for centuries. In the post Anglo-Saxon period, the question mark and exclamation point have been two accepted symbols used to infuse a sentence with an expressed sentiment.
In the modern age, some credit Kevin Mackensie in 1979 for using -) denoting a tongue-in-cheek expression. But it was Scott E. Fahlman who is credited with popularizing the first generation emoticon, the famous smiley. In 1982 on the CMU bulletin system, he posited the use of :-) for a smile and :-( for a frown. Otherwise, he said, readers would not know if a statement was meant seriously or in jest. This system spread like wildfire through the internet world and is still used today. Unfortunately, Fahlman didn’t save his posts. It would take 20 years for Jeff Baird to find a backup of the posts. Today, his claim is generally regarded at gospel.
The yellow graphical smiley became popular in the early 1970s as brothers Murray and Bernard Spain seized upon the graphic and popularized it by putting in on buttons, coffee mugs, t-shirts and bumper stickers. Starting in the 1980s, small smiley emoticons were included in Windows wingding font tables. Today, you can find colorful line-ups of emoticons in Internet Messaging software and in dedicated web sites that categorize many hundreds of these rascals. These symbols can represent other objects of subjects, not just emotions. A few popular categories are animals, clowns, people, text, trademarks and more. Popular sub-categories are winking eyes called “winks,” animated emoticons and even 3D animated objects. Emoticons are fun to look at and very useful in spicing up otherwise routine correspondence.
Emoticons should not be confused with background images, display pictures or other images that are commonly found on instant messenger sites. Some may appear similar to an emoticon in content but they are much too large to serve the purpose of an emoticon. An emoticon must be small to serve as emotion punctuation to a sentence. The content of this small image must be easily discerned for an emoticon to be effective.
One word of caution, emoticons are most effective if used in moderation. Overused they lose their impact. Most discouraged is answering a post with simply an emoticon. This is considered bad etiquette and can be seen as a form of spam. Use your creativity to use the perfect emoticon at the right moment.
Gene Brenner is webmaster of a company that offers a large member supplied database of
Microsoft Messenger emoticons and display pictures. These are arranged by category for easy searching. He also buys and sells websites which makes him knowledgeable in several disciplines.
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