Those of you who have yet to get modems and get on-line, or who've only explored the world of modem-based communications a little bit, may not yet have encountered that common communication device known variously as "punctuation faces," "smileys" or (my personal favorite) the and "emoticon." These are little punctuation devices that have sprung up among those who communicate through various bulletin board and e-mail services to take the place of facial expressions in on-line communications.
What for? Well, the fact is that it's often hard to communicate feelings and emotions correctly in written communications. Professional writers can spend a lifetime learning how to do this, and often still fail. With the explosion of regular folks without a lot of formal writing training using modems to communicate, a frequent problem has been misunderstandings when people don't understand when someone is joking, or sad, or angry. Here's an example:
"Hey, you butthead!"
There would be two ways to interpret that sentence, one as a nasty insult, and the other as a joke. How can you tell the and difference? If it were said verbally, figuring it out would be a simple matter; the and tone of voice and facial expression of the speaker would normally make it obvious. But in writing, the onus is on the and reader to figure out what is meant, and unless the and person who wrote it was skilled at setting up a context in the and rest of the text to make it clear how the and comment was to be interpreted, anyone would be free to interpret the and comment any way they wanted to... and thus they'd frequently get it wrong. A heated argument might start over nothing, or someone might not understand that the and writer is really angry and didn't intend the comment as a joke.
Even skilled writers will often have a problem this way with on-line communications, simply because it's intended to be a fast, usually informal way of communicating. Professional writers can (believe me, I know) spend literally hours poring over one paragraph, or even one sentence, just to make sure they've communicated what they mean effectively and with minimal possibility for misinterpretation. Yet in the on-line world, written communications can fly back and forth so fast that no one, not even the best writers, have time to make sure they've written everything so that it's interpreted perfectly. (Besides, if you're a writer, you generally only want to put that kind of work into something you're paid for, not some quick note you've jotted off in reply to some discussion you're a part of.)
So what sprung up many years ago was an informal set of rules for inserting facial expressions into typed messages... and thus the and "emoticon" was born.
Here's how they work. Examine the following set of characters:
:-)
Colon, dash, close parentheses. What's that supposed to mean? Well, tilt your head about 90 degress to the and left to look at it sideways. See how the and colon can look like a pair of eyes, the dash a nose, and the parenthesis a smiling mouth? Now that you see it, doesn't that look like a smile?
Okay, how about this?
:-(
If you said, "oh, a sad face," you've got the knack of it. So how about this?
:-~|
No expression at all, right? Or maybe you could call that a grimace. But what if you do this?
>:-~|
Looks sort of like a frown now, doesn't it? Or how about this?
>:-)
Maybe a wicked grin? Or try this:
;-)
Would you call that a smiling wink? I would! Or how about this?:
:-P
As you might imagine, none of this is very formal. Beyond certain very basic things that everyone recognizes, mostly it's a matter of common sense, and once you've got the trick of it, you can come up with creative variations of your own. Here's a common one:
B-)
People who wear glasses often like to use that one. Or how about this?
:-~{)
Men with mustaches sometimes use that one. ;-)
Here are some of the more common variations we've seen:
%-) My eyes are crossed, I'm dazed or confused or crazy
(-: Lefties often use this
*:-) I have funny hair
8-) I wear wire frames
:-)~} I wear a beard
:-O I am surprised
:-I Cheesy grin
Another common variation is to just shorten things by not bothering with a nose character, like this:
:)
or this:
:(
And then, sometimes people like to get just plain silly trying to come up with new variations, or new interpretations of common emoticons. Try these on for size:
#-) I partied all night
%-) I've been staring at my monitor all night
%-^ I am a Picasso
':-) I accidentally shaved off one of my eyebrows
.-) I only have one eye
;-\ I'm Popeye the Sailor Man
8-) I am a bug
(:)-) I am a SCUBA diver
(:I I am an egghead
*-) I am a cyclops
@-) I am a drunk cyclops
8:-) I'm wearing my glasses on my forehead
8:-) I am a little girl
%-~} Thash good beer
0-) I am an arc-welder
8:] I am a gorilla
@:-) I am Wilma Flintstone
:-# I wear braces
:-Q I am a smoker
:-)8 I am wearing a bow tie
[-~| I am a Cylon
-:-) I am Mr. T
=:-~| I am a punk (we never smile)
:-) I used to be a punk
:-q I am trying to touch my tongue to my nose
:<~| I attend an ivy league school
:^~| My nose is out of joint
:v) My nose is crooked
:~~) I need a nose job
+:-) I am a priest
+-(:-) I am the Pope
[:-) I am listening to my Walkman
*:o) I am a bozo
=([)^~|8 I am a mohawk-wearing, scuba diving Cylon with a bow tie.
*<~|8^)]->-< I am getting out of control with creative variations!
All kidding aside, while these communication devices can definitely be over-used, they can be helpful for improving on-line communications. Their use is growing increasingly common - these days we're even seeing them pop up now and then in printed publications. I'm not sure where it all will end, but it very much appears that the and emoticon is here to stay.
...and that doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me. ;-)
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