Using Symbols to Show Emotion in Text
Heather Simpson
Smileys and emoticons are used in written forms of communication to describe a particular emotion or mood that is within the message that is sent. They consist of eyes formed by colons (or semicolons to show winking) and mouths formed by various letters or symbols ranging from a D to symbolize a large smile or a left hand parentheses to express sadness. Here are several example: : ( ; ) : D.
While smileys are made purely of text characters, emoticons are little yellow faces that can be loaded from smileyCentral. Both display emotions to enhance the message of the text.
The acceptance of the smileys for informal and written messages are largely due to the abundance of communications by text messages, message boards and instant messaging (IM).
It is rare to find a youth that is not well versed in the meaning and use of smileys and emoticons on the internet and in messaging today. The youth were the first to use them and spread their popularity.
The emotions displayed have evolved from just happiness and sadness to disbelief, anger, playfulness and surprise.
Females use the emoticons much more often than males. This may be due to feeling more comfortable in expressing emotions or they may be more versed in using telecommunication nuance techniques.
Some have criticized the use of these symbols as detrimental to the depth of human communication, but these don't address the obvious benefits of use. These benefits include faster communication, the allowance of intimate text messages with little effort.
The future of these symbols seems to have plateaued. All expressions possible using text characters seem to have been used up. Emoticons can display a wider range of emotions since they are not limited. The future of more nuanced symbols lies within message forums since their text messages are often longer and more detailed, thus requiring a wider range of symbols.
About the Author:
If you want your own smileys for IM, or want to share your thoughts on smileys , just go to SmileySmileySmiley.com. You will be glad you did.
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