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Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: Scott on June 21, 2005, 02:26 PM

Title: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Scott on June 21, 2005, 02:26 PM
This is dedicated to Dale


:) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :(
Bill Dawson,  Star Tribune
June 21, 2005 SMIVAR0621
 
 
 
 
There's something about the : ) that brings out the }: [ in some people.

Shannon Worden of Pequot Lakes, Minn., calls emoticons, those sideways punctuation faces used in e-mail and text messages, "an emotional firestorm of smiles and frowns and little wiggly grins."

Angus Trumble is even tougher. "To be perfectly honest, I would rather die than add a little smiley face to a message," said Trumble, author of "A Brief History of the Smile."

And Penn Jillette -- the vocal half of comic magicians Penn and Teller -- recently wrote that emoticons are "used by people who would dot their i's with little circles and should have their eyes dotted with Drano."

Scott Fahlman, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, just laughs at Penn's polemic. "He seems to think this is the worst thing ever inflicted on mankind," said Fahlman, who is credited -- or blamed -- for introducing the emoticon in 1982, while posting messages on the college's online bulletin board, a precursor to today's newsgroups.

MicrozoaGetty ImagesSwarm of smileys

Fahlman is as surprised as anyone by the massive expansion of "smilies and frownies."

The High-Tech Dictionary now displays 239 emoticons, including #:-o (shocked), ]:-> (little devil) and 7:) (Ronald Reagan). There are also hundreds of electronic emoticons, many based on the familiar yellow smiley face.

That face is one reason why many people recoil at emoticons, especially those who can remember the glut of smiling yellow "Have a Nice Day" buttons in the 1970s.

Others just don't get it.

"I'm not quite sure what the purpose [of emoticons] is," said Trumble. "Does this reflect the mood of the sender, or require me to join in this nonverbal expression?"

Personal touch

Emoticon users say they're just trying to be understood. "I often use it to counteract e-mail's famous lack of context," said an e-mail from Amy Sitze of Minneapolis. "If I add a smiley emoticon, you hear the tone of voice I intended; I'm joking with you."

"As our technological world moves further away from the warmth of personal contact, we seem to be trying to get our emotional messages to leak through onto the screens," wrote Vickie Roberts of Eden Prairie. She closed her e-mail with a ;-}.

No harm done

Emoticons may help to express the proper emotional tone, but some people worry about the societal price. They are "time-savers but brain-wasters," wrote Richard LaBree of St. Paul in an e-mail.

Others say that "Netspeak," which includes emoticons and abbreviations such as "UR" for "you are," might stunt language growth. "Emoticons are different from the other kinds of abhorrent text-messaging shortcuts," wrote Joy Anderson of St. Paul, who sees shortcuts such as "B4" as "signs of the apolcalypse."Writing out 'before' is just not that difficult," she said.

But at a recent symposium in Washington, D.C., a panel of experts declared that emoticons and other forms of Netspeak do more good than harm.

"The Internet is fostering new kinds of creativity through language," said David Crystal, a language historian at the University of Wales.

The panel said blogs have brought back diary writing, which provides more practice with words. And a study of instant messages at American University in Washington, D.C., showed that only 2 percent of the 11,718 words in the study were misspelled.

Anatoly Liberman, a University of Minnesota professor and author of "Word Origins," agreed. Emoticons are "convenient, like any other hieroglyphic," he said, and are not a "danger to the preservation of good English."

Too much

For many, the primary drawback is volume. Everybody understands the smiley, the frownie and the simple variations on these.

But hundreds of symbols can get confusing.

"Some of the evolutions have gone terribly awry," messaged Worden. "I have found myself spending actual minutes with my head tilted at a ridiculous angle, squinting at a computer screen, wondering what 'emotion' two parentheses, a colon, an ampersand and an asterisk could possibly resemble."

Anderson agreed. "Emoticon abuse," she wrote, "is a terrible thing."
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Scott on June 21, 2005, 02:30 PM
:-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Diddly on June 21, 2005, 02:36 PM
What's up with those comments from Penn? Pretty harsh.... Drano? Ouch.
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: DSJ™ on June 21, 2005, 02:59 PM
Quote from: Scott on June 21, 2005, 02:26 PM
But at a recent symposium in Washington, D.C., a panel of experts declared that emoticons and other forms of Netspeak do more good than harm.

(http://www.telusplanet.net/public/djustus/holysheep.gif)  (http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/konfus/a015.gif) a panel of experts. Who the **** paid these guys? Your tax money! (http://www.telusplanet.net/public/djustus/wtf.gif)

Oh wait, the basic emoticons.. 8-)   ::)

Drano! Penn should go back to pulling rabbits out of his ass! (http://www.galactichunter.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/monketdance4.gif)

Why I...  (http://www.telusplanet.net/public/djustus/Beatavatar.gif)
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: sfg on June 21, 2005, 03:14 PM
Someone should conduct an experiment where they attempt to communicate with the world using nothing but emoticons.

On second thought, that would be incredibly lame.

8======D~
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Scott on June 21, 2005, 03:24 PM
The person doing said experiment would have to be somewhat off his rocker :o :o :o
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Jagdohh_Fett on June 22, 2005, 02:15 AM
Hmmm ... interesting. :P :-\
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Commander Cody on June 22, 2005, 03:07 AM
 :o :o :o :o :o
 :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
 :) :) :) :) :)
 :P :P :P :P :P
 ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
 ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
 :D :D :D :D :D
 ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
 >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
 :( :( :( :( :(
Title: Re: :-) Emoticons draw mixed reactions :-(
Post by: Vator on June 22, 2005, 09:06 AM
This is a shock!!!!!!!!!!!! :o ??? ???


:o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o

 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
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 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o
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 :o :o :o :o :o       :o :o :o :o :o