May 19, 2008
It’s been hard, but I’ve come to accept emoticons when used sparingly and honestly.
Like this post?
Those impish little freakazoids really do make a difference in how we’re understood online. :(
I’m learning to appreciate them. What about you?
* * * * *
Sparingly and honestly, I like them. Two other requirements for me are that they be sound-free and minimally animated. I’m a fan of the basic smilie :) , the big grin :D , and the sticking-out tongue :P .
they freak me out!!
i occasionally use the winking one ;) just to make sure someone knows i’m joking when leaving comments on blogs.
peaceout
I admit it … I’m a habitual winker.
;-)
However, I don’t like it when it actually makes a cartoon of my punctuation, especially when I want to have an 8 before a closed parenthesis or whatnot and it forces an emoticon on me.
I’ll take the emoticons, but hold the Fascism, please!
8)
I try not to use so much, but they make me smile when people use them appropriately, and I’m so used to them – from the olden days of AOL, signing on, and getting a “you’ve got mail” message… then IMing hearing a dial tone, beep beep beep, and signing on to talk to my future husband when I was in college… I always looked forward to his little flirtatious winks. ;)
Emoticon snobs are bullies…. They do their darndest to make you feel like a complete idiot/loser while elevating their own superiority for not resorting to their use.
For me, I APPRECIATE the well-placed emoticon; they DO help communicate e mo t i o n; because writing is one dimensional and can easily be misinterpreted, imho they help to convey intent of the writer.
After reading a post from a (religious) author who blasted the use of emoticon, I stopped using them for a season because I felt self-conscious. Ultimately I decided “but that’s ME!” and picked ‘em back up.
Glad you’re loosening up, Abraham….heaven forbid if you were a Non-emoticon Elitist ;).
I think it’s best to communicate in a way that doesn’t need smilies. For instance, authors of essays and books can make themselves clear without them. And usually so can we.
That being said, there are occasional times when they can be useful.
But they’re always tacky.
I have never liked them. Also I don’t know how to make them!
When words fail us, its good to have something really vague and nearly meaningless to fall back on. :)
If I understand Josh correctly, emoticons are a great way to say, “I’m willing to be completely tacky in order to keep you from being angry at what I just said.”
That’s a pretty significant linguistic function.
(They need to invent an emoticon that has its tongue in its cheek. But I wouldn’t use it here, because I’m completely serious.)
The consistent absence of emoticons might look like elitism, when really it’s just “I don’t know how.” (Notice: total of 22 words!)
Alright everybody, please start listing how to make the emoticons you know.
the basics -
smile [colon][right parenthesis] :)
frown [colon][left parenthesis] :(
Are you serious? When you type that somewhere, like in this box, a little picture comes up? :(
Didn’t work for me…
Yeah, it did. What do you know?
Abraham, I like your interpretation. It is much better than my original. [Optional smiley here.]
i had no idea how to make an emoticon. thanks, abraham. now i’m going to make a pasta salad that i learned from your wife. hm.
Big grin [colon][capital D] :D
Tongue out [colon][capital P] :P
I suppose we should all communicate in a way that does not need an emoticon. Unfortunately, not all are gifted in the art of communicating through words and those tacky little emoticons sometimes help those with lesser skills communicate something. For instance, it is extremely hard to read tone into an e-mail. So, I could say “I’m going crazy” (common to this mom of 3). Just saying it could mean, I am literally going crazy. But stating it like this “I’m going crazy” :) . Adds the tone of joking.
Not sure why I am spending this much time thinking about this. Thanks a lot Abraham! Just when I thought I could turn my brain off for a bit ! :)
Don’t like email conversations with or without emoticons. Too much is lost without the human voice and interaction. If I had a dollar for everytime I was misunderstood via email I would have a Mac and not a cheap PC. :)
:w
colon+w doesn’t work for anything.
:D
I love emoticons. I just wish they could do voice inflextion, that’s propably coming in our children’s days.
I like emoticons lots! :-D The thing with living a discernable percentile of my life through the internet is I don’t always want to communicate my mood through the more formal “writey” method.
That said, I HATE :-[ it when they are cartoonised. Half the time the expression is entirely undiscernable and the purpose for them is to be a powerful wordless expression, not a gimicky picture.
Putting an emoticon in every sentence within a sentence before the sentence has even been completed just makes that sentence illegible and and doesn’t get the offenders point across they are trying to make. which in most cases is not intelligible anyway .In order to read the more important threads, I’ve resorted to having to place offenders on my ignore list so the fluidity of the thread is not marred, but more importantly I spare myself a cerebral hemmorage.
I know 21 ways to make faces.
:) :( ;) 8) :lol: :mrgreen: :P :D :-x 8-O :-o :| :? :cry: :oops: :roll: :?: :!: :idea: :evil: :twisted:
Hmm…
:)
:(
;)
8)
:lol:
:mrgreen:
:P
:D
:-x
8-O
:-o
:|
:?
:cry:
:oops:
:roll:
:?:
:!:
:idea:
:evil:
:twisted:
Well… normally it works. It works on my blog.
:) :( ;) 8) :lol: :mrgreen: :P :D :-x 8-O :-o :| :? :cry: :oops: :roll: :?: :!: :idea: :evil: :twisted:
:cry: