Emoticons are used online to convey emotions and intonation. The most common is a smiley face. Emoticons play an important role in online communication to avoid misinterpretations. Other emoticons have become part of the international language of the Internet. Shorthands for conveying emotion are also used. Emoticons and acronyms are part of internet jargon and evolve as the internet evolves.
The word emoticon is a combination of the words emotion and icon. Emoticons are used online to convey the intonation or inflection of the voice, body gestures, and the emotions behind statements that might otherwise be misunderstood.
The most common emoticon is a smiley face, made with the colon for the eyes and the left bracket like the smile, viewed at a 90 degree angle.
Sometimes a dash is used between the eyes and the mouth to indicate a nose.
This emoticon is normally used to convey light-heartedness, happiness, jokes or jokes. To see the difference an emoticon can make, just look at the following two statements:
Yes, James, you looked like a real loser. or…
Yes, James, you looked like a real geek.
Whether or not James considers “geek” a badge of honor or an insult, the first statement without the emoticon sounds like it’s definitely meant to be an insult. The second statement, however, with its smiling face, is very clearly meant to be taken in a playful way and not likely to offend.
Emoticons play an important role in online communication because the vast majority of people who communicate have never met and don’t know each other well, if at all. Misinterpreting intentions is all too easy, aside from the facial expressions and verbal inflections that face-to-face communication offers.
With the popularity of the smiley emoticon, other emoticons quickly followed. Sometimes an emoticon will become popular in a particular newsgroup or Web group, but won’t be known outside of that group. Other emoticons have become part of the international language of the Internet.
Some common emoticons include:
frown
winks
:(“” cry
>:) mischievous smile
:-/ smirk or confused
smiling and sticking out her tongue
laughing out loud
>:- mad
Smiling and frowning emoticons were first suggested by computer scientist Scott Fahlman on September 19, 1982. Fahlman’s post, on a Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board, was pulled from the archives on September 10, 2002 to fix the old rumor date that they had originated from him. Some believe that emoticons have also been used earlier elsewhere. In any case it seems clear that they were destined to be part of our online vernacular.
Along the same lines are other shorthands for conveying emotion: =smile, =big smile, and =very big smile! Some other acronyms commonly seen online alongside emoticons are:
Laugh out loud
ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing
BFN bye for now
TTYL see you later
IMO in my opinion
IMHO in my humble opinion
IMNSHO in my not so humble opinion
IIRC if I remember correctly
IAC in any case
OTOH from elsewhere
FWIW for what it’s worth
HTH hope it helps
Emoticons and acronyms are part of internet jargon and evolve as the internet evolves. And as this fascinating medium that has brought together complete strangers from all over the world continues to enlighten, delight and educate us, emoticons will be there as little ambassadors helping to clarify our intentions!
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