Smiley Emoticons: where did they come from?

Chances are that if you've ever used a computer that was connected to the internet, you've encountered what are known as smiley emoticons.

Now commonplace, these little "textual expressions" are found everywhere: social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook, instant messenger conversations, and, quite possibly, they'll even be in some of the emails in your inbox.

But why are the little smiley faces called "emoticons"? And where did they come from?

The answer to the first question is relatively simple - the word emoticon is a combination of the words emote and icon. Makes sense, doesn't it? By using an emoticon, one is emoting (displaying emotions) with an icon.

So who was the first to combine a colon, dash and parenthesis into the little guy we now know so well? The invention of the smiley emoticon could be debated forever - it would be very difficult to assert who indeed was the originator. However, there are a few historical markers we can examine, going back as far as the 1970s. It was 1979 that Kevin Mackenzie - a member of a British Telecom message board - suggested an emoticon to express that a statement was intended to be "tongue in cheek" (when something is said in a sarcastic or lightly mocking way).

Later on in 1982 Scott Fahlman, a now-famous computer scientist (for his amazing work in developing neural networks) suggested the smiley face we now know, and is generally credited as the "inventor."

But more important than the origins of the smiley emoticon is it's use and how these characters have changed the way we communicate and interact through text. Inflection, once limited to speech only, can now be shown easily in textual interactions. It seems odd, but let's look at a couple of examples. "How are you? :-)" has a different feeling than "How are you? :-\". You can see that the first example easily conveys a "happy" tone, whereas the second could be interpreted as melancholy or regretful. Even something as simple as "Hi there :-D" is quite a bit different than "Hi there :-(". Obviously the first example is showing elation (the 'D' being an open, smiling mouth) and the second uses the "frowny face" and conveys unhappiness. You can easily see how emoticons are no longer just cute little icons we use haphazardly - they've become an integrated and important part of "internet culture" and, especially amongst the technology-savvy younger generations, an important part of language as a whole.

So if you don't use these useful, interesting little icons, you might want to give it a try. You'll find that you might be able to more easily express yourself and your feelings in casual messages or emails, and you might also find yourself having just a little bit of fun using smiley emoticons every now and again.