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It’s kind of hard to believe, but smiley icons have been used on computers since September 1982. For over a quarter-century we’ve been typing these little half-pint text helpers in our online conversations. And if they’ve lasted this long, the question must be asked, “Will the smiley ever disappear?” |
Schott Fahlman, a former research professor of Carnegie Mellon University began the smiley trend by typing the letter “J” after his posts on a university bulletin board when he wanted readers to know he was not being serious.
From this humble beginning, an entire culture evolved around the tiny “emoticon” (so-named because it conveyed the emotion behind the text).Originally, emoticons like smileys were used to show that the poster was an Internet expert of sorts, and if you understood the secret language being used, you were considered an expert too.
We’ve certainly come a long way since then. Once "secret" symbols like the smiley are now as commonplace as cell-phones or fax machines, and millions of people around the world use these “mini faces” every day.
But when you really think about it, the humble emoticon is a brilliant innovation. It allows a higher degree of communication, for readers to understand not only your words, but the state of mind behind the words.
For example, trying to express sarcasm in an email can be next to impossible because the reader cannot hear the tone of your voice. Using these small symbols can help the reader to understand your intended meaning—not just the words on the screen.
Today’s web smiley's are much more than symbols, they are a communication resource for a new generation that helps explain what the words alone cannot: your intentions.
Recently, the humble smiley celebrated its 25th birthday online, but some say that the era of the smiley has come and gone, that it has turned into just another distracting advertising tool interrupting your web-surfing experience at the top of a million pages online. Has the smiley gone too far?
Even though these advertising smileys can be annoying, the thought living in an online world without smileys (and the other emoticons) just doesn’t make sense. The truth is we need the smileys. How else can we express sympathy and derision in the same paragraph of an email?
No, whether you like it or not, emoticons are here to stay. These bite-size icons have lasted more than 25 years, and in computer time, that amounts to several centuries.
As the Internet, and society in general, continue to progress, so do the subtle meanings attached to smiley icons and the other emoticons. The regular smiley, usually displayed as :) used to be used to express a lack of seriousness or a joke. Today it is more commonly used to express happiness. So it appears that emoticons like smiley evolve over time, just as other forms of communication do.
These days, “virtual smileys” are much more commonplace. These cheerful, round and impossibly yellow smilies are capable of more complex movement and displays of emotion. Virtual smileys can even walk, sing, dance or play musical instruments or games.
But despite their advanced technology, these virtual smileys are still the distant cousins of the simple :) we have come to love and rely on. Long live the smiley icon!
