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Many people were not aware that they had any artistic ability until they learned that they could create smileys by simply making typographical mistakes in an instant messenger program on the internet. A yellow character suddenly appeared in the line of text, and it had a sad expression on what appeared to be a face if the person cocked their head sideways to view it. |
From that point forward, there was no point in stopping the mistakes made to create smileys because what was created by them was positively adorable. Typing speeds seemed to improve too because people were rushing to make mistakes just to see what type of character would surface from their mistakes.
They learned to create smileys that pouted, and others that turned red in the face. Of course, communicating with friends became hard, but they soon became used to the gibberish that scrolled across the screen. They began to worry about their friend though because the ever changing attitude of the little yellow character seemed to be addicting.
Soon the smiley symbols began appearing around the house when the person was not even logged on the internet. Creating smileys became a way of life for many families with children. Then the squiggled symbols began to show up on memorandums and notes at work, and eventually became standard features on requests for various services to the mailman.
Children began to check the paper bags that were always used for school lunches to see if their parent had taken the time to create smileys before they left the house. The smiley symbols by that time were definitely a hit with the youngsters in the family. Some Mothers bought colored pens to make their own designed lunch boxes for their kids.
Creating smileys became a project for every child at the beginning of each new school year, when book bags were easily identified by the dots and slants that were strategically drawn on the sides. The obsession to create smileys spread to the academic level when the older kids started taking computer classes. It was easy to use the computer programs to make realistic faces on the symbolic characters. Some of these colorful symbols gained notoriety and were given slogans that told people to have a nice day.
Some people preferred their smileys bald and other artists preferred to ornament their new friend with a full head of hair. Some days their friend would change hairstyles several times and go from curly to straight in three or four seconds flat. They learned to create smileys that showed all sorts of emotions and then learned that they were in fact, called emoticons.
As it turns out, creating smileys weren't such a mistake after all. The small errors in typing have created a fun way to spend the evening, and a new way to enjoy the home computer. Party decorations are certainly more exciting and visually appealing and people realize they have the opportunity to create distinctive designs for their clothing every time they create smileys on a piece of iron-on mesh fabric.
