Swept Away By Emoticons

Emoticons. Smileys. Whatever you call them… little, (generally) yellow, faces inserted into electronic messages to help convey what the author is trying to get across. Or for the text-restricted… sideways faces making the use of parentheses, colons, semi-colons, dashes (if you desire a nose on your emoticon) and various letters. (A compilation and the history of smileys.)

Some people love them and feel they facilitate understanding of the intent of their messages. Others hate emoticons because they see them as something utilized to make up for a weak writing style. I have no problem with their use in many situations because I feel that online communication can use all the help it can get. For me, interacting via a computer is like talking to someone in a pitch-black room while using a voice modulator... potentially very, very frustrating.

But the use of emoticons can also be insidious and addictive and the dance forum I read is an excellent illustration of that. There are some members who punctuate every sentence with a little smiley face (and animated ones at that) and then add a whole string of them dancing along the bottom of the message. This forum is populated with very artsy and emotional folk, so maybe they feel an even greater need for more expression than is provided by mere combinations of letters and spaces.

Personally, I try not to use emoticons here in my blog (as you’ve probably noticed), but will use them in forum replies, personal messages and email (as you’ve probably noticed). Why? Generally, when I post something here, I have the time to write it, think about it, tweak it and make sure the words get the point across as I’ve intended. However, I rarely have the luxury to take the time to do that in my correspondence (or some of you would never get an answer from me and you know how I feel about that subject). Plus, I would rather over-clarify my response then have it taken the wrong way.

I guess I just view emoticons as a substitute for all the waving around of hands and arms, making faces and using different voice inflections that I do when I talk to people in person. And face to face is always my preferred form of communication. I think my own smile wins out over those little yellow faces, whether they are animated or not.