An excerpt from "Some Thoughts On the Winky Face ;-)" by Erin Bailey
Smiley faces have been around for a while – I can remember getting brightly colored happy stickers in elementary school on the quizzes I aced – but the digital advent of emoticons as they’re known today all started back in ’82, with an email (hard to believe they had email back then) written by a scientist at Carnegie-Mellon University. I’m not sure how long it took people to start using them or who came up with the winky face ;-) we all know and love (or hate) today, or any of the dozens of other emoticons, or ‘smileys’ practically everyone from our generation uses in texts, in instant messaging, on Facebook, everywhere. Maybe our generation should be called Generation :-) instead of Generation Y or whatever they’re calling us. Now, conveniently, you don’t have to put your complicated thoughts and sentiments into words. You can just use a smiley.
Different smileys can encompass myriad emotions. They are, after all, called emote-icons for a reason. A simple :-) could mean… thank you; I’m in a good mood; I like you; I don’t know what to say but I want the conversation to keep going; I’m trying to ease the harshness of what I just said without actually apologizing or weakening my opinion; I’m unnecessarily reinforcing the positive attitude of what I just said; I’m unsuccessfully attempting to be mysterious by not saying anything and just smiling like the Mona Lisa… a smiley can mean pretty much anything you want.
Unless you’re sad. Then you should use :-( That can mean…I’m sorry; I’m upset; I don’t like you; you insulted me; pity me, please; my dog just died and you’re being really insensitive about it; I don’t possess the basic faculties necessary to communicate my feelings so I’ll just use these punctuation marks instead. If your sadness intensifies or :-( just doesn’t seem strong enough, you can always cry about it :’-(
Then there are your ever-so-slightly more complicated emoticons – the flirty or silly tongue sticking out :-P, the ‘my lips are sealed’ or ‘I don’t even know how to reply to that’ :-X, the surprised or shocked face :-O (for something less awe-inspiring, maybe just use :-o). Don’t even get me started on the near-incomprehensible ones – what the hell is this? <:oD A clown? John Wayne Gacy? Please don’t tell me if you’ve ever had occasion to use a serial killer emoticon. I won’t even get into the crazy Japanese ones, though I tend to like them more since I don’t have to crane my neck to figure out what they mean. But above all, my personal favorite has to be… the winky face ;-)
Depending on who types out those three punctuation marks (or two, if you don’t care for noses ;), or just one little click if emoticons are preloaded on your iPhone or what have you), a winky face can be very… emotional, for lack of a better word. If you’re texting your crush and they use the wink, is that a go-ahead for more forward flirting? Is it a green light for hooking up? Can I go update my Facebook status to ‘it’s complicated’ now?
This article on something as seemingly discreet as a windy face made me smile after an unpleasantly dull day.
Read the rest here
Different smileys can encompass myriad emotions. They are, after all, called emote-icons for a reason. A simple :-) could mean… thank you; I’m in a good mood; I like you; I don’t know what to say but I want the conversation to keep going; I’m trying to ease the harshness of what I just said without actually apologizing or weakening my opinion; I’m unnecessarily reinforcing the positive attitude of what I just said; I’m unsuccessfully attempting to be mysterious by not saying anything and just smiling like the Mona Lisa… a smiley can mean pretty much anything you want.
Unless you’re sad. Then you should use :-( That can mean…I’m sorry; I’m upset; I don’t like you; you insulted me; pity me, please; my dog just died and you’re being really insensitive about it; I don’t possess the basic faculties necessary to communicate my feelings so I’ll just use these punctuation marks instead. If your sadness intensifies or :-( just doesn’t seem strong enough, you can always cry about it :’-(
Then there are your ever-so-slightly more complicated emoticons – the flirty or silly tongue sticking out :-P, the ‘my lips are sealed’ or ‘I don’t even know how to reply to that’ :-X, the surprised or shocked face :-O (for something less awe-inspiring, maybe just use :-o). Don’t even get me started on the near-incomprehensible ones – what the hell is this? <:oD A clown? John Wayne Gacy? Please don’t tell me if you’ve ever had occasion to use a serial killer emoticon. I won’t even get into the crazy Japanese ones, though I tend to like them more since I don’t have to crane my neck to figure out what they mean. But above all, my personal favorite has to be… the winky face ;-)
Depending on who types out those three punctuation marks (or two, if you don’t care for noses ;), or just one little click if emoticons are preloaded on your iPhone or what have you), a winky face can be very… emotional, for lack of a better word. If you’re texting your crush and they use the wink, is that a go-ahead for more forward flirting? Is it a green light for hooking up? Can I go update my Facebook status to ‘it’s complicated’ now?
This article on something as seemingly discreet as a windy face made me smile after an unpleasantly dull day.
Read the rest here
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