That’s right, today isn’t just International Talk Like A Pirate Day (why, one wonders), it also marks the 25th anniversary of the shorthand symbol that we came to know as the smiley emoticon. Not to be confused with the original smiley, though (which traces back its origins to over 40 years ago), but still: hooray.
Although… I’ve never really felt comfortable using these emoticons. Sure, I type the odd colon and bracket when I’m too lazy to rephrase, but I try to do so sparingly. And whenever they do pop up in a comment of mine (I wouldn’t think of using them in a post), I wonder whether they should be there in the first place.
We have dozens (if not hundreds or thousands) different facial expressions and at least 250,000 words in English to express ourselves with. And three little punctuation marks (sometimes only two) are going to convey all that? I can’t begin to believe it. Sure, it is said that emoticons add to the conversation, but often I’ve just found them confusing, and just as often they’re as much the cause of flame wars or spamming threads as any regular word.
Oh, and did I say they’re ugly? They make correct punctuation nigh impossible, and whenever they’re converted to real icons, they usurp all attention in the paragraph and break line spacing like a polar bear spotting a refuse bin.
The worst I’ve always found the wink. I don’t think anyone knows what it means exactly, and whenever I see it I’m never sure which ‘emotion’ is meant by it. Of course that also implies that, whenever I use it, I never know what mental image I’ve just imprinted on someone’s mind. Like so:
But okay, it’s the little thing’s birthday, and I’m not going to rain on any smiley’s parade. I couldn’t live with myself if I did. So, happy birthday little one and you can use as many in the comments as you like ;-)
19 September 2007 at 6:05 pm
You’ll find all the answers you need here.
Turns out it was just two bored guys from Oregon that just decided to speak like pirates.
Arrr. Or whatever.
Oh no. We have at least 250,000 words in English, actually.
But don’t mind me. I’m just being pedantic.
19 September 2007 at 6:38 pm
Personally, I favor the wink over all other emoticons. To me, it means, “Don’t take what you just read too seriously. There’s probably more than a little tongue-in-cheek going on there.” Or something like that, anyway. Since it’s not REALLY an emotion that’s being expressed in this case, maybe the problem lies with the word “emoticon”.
As for the rest, I agree that they are over-used. And probably misused, as well. The smile never really conveys any useful information unless it’s to say, “Stay happy even after reading what you just read!” Worse are LOL, LMAO, and ROFL (which are now often automatically converted into emoticons). Seriously… Did you really laugh out loud, laugh your ass off, or find yourself rolling on the floor in laughter? Or was it simply easier to type those few characters than to compliment the person you’re chatting with by saying, “That was funny!”?
19 September 2007 at 7:15 pm
@Rich: the question of course remains, why? But then again, ours is not to reason why… especially when it has to do with the internet. But thanks, I did correct that: when you’re right, you’re right.
@CoJ: hey there stranger. I think you nailed it there: they’re not ‘emoticons’ at all. Look, even my spell checker refuses to accept the word. Perhaps they’re more like ‘writing add-ons’ or something; they look neat and nifty at first but just slow you down after a while.
19 September 2007 at 9:23 pm
They’re just a modern-day version of the hieroglyphic…just perfect for the occupants of a lazy digital age.
For what it’s worth, I only use LOL when I did, in real life, actually laugh out loud.
19 September 2007 at 11:16 pm
Nils: For the same reason I occasionally break into Esperanto when talking to my friends, probably.
Kial ne? ;)
23 September 2007 at 2:18 pm
[...] do you stand on Smilies? Nils isn’t a fan. He does make a good point – they are ugly and far too prone to misinterpretation. But I am guilty [...]