Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

smiley faces


Recommended Posts

well, i never bought into that, anyway. somebody is always trying to sell something.

 

there's another forum which has animated emoti, emiti, whatever-icons, and some threads consist of nothing but replies with them. for a group, here, which eschews "text - spelling", it seems odd to resort to these things.

Emoticons (or now we also have emojis - thank Japanese culture for this really cutesy stuff)  have been around for a long time.

The above Wiki link has a good explanation as to why they are used:

As social media has become widespread, emoticons have played a significant role in communication through technology, and some devices have provided stylized pictures that do not use punctuation. They offer another range of "tone" and feeling through texting that portrays specific emotions through facial gestures while in the midst of text-based cyber communication.

I also think of emoticons as shortcuts. While you could convey your thoughts purely through words, using emoticons is much easier and faster.  As for the current use you can thank early computer geeks for them. The original emoticons go way back to the days of dial-up bulletin boards where they were written the old-fashioned way using ASCII characters like :-) . Of course as computers got more powerful, cutesy graphics replaced the ASCII text emoticons. That's progress for you. :D

Even if you dislike those smiley things, I highly recommend that you read the Wikipedia entry I linked to at the beginning of my reply: you might just learn some very interesting things. :)

 

But as with everything else, there are serious emoticon abusers out there: those who end each sentence with an emoticon, or those who just spew lines full of them across the message like this:

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Like it or not, this is the new way of computer-text-based conversations. You don't have to like them or use them. :P

Edited by peteski
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...