To some, an email or text message is incomplete
without the use of J orL. Whereas, to
others the very idea of using ‘emoticons’ or the so called ‘communication
graphics’ makes the blood boil representing all that has gone wrong with the
English language.
However,
these emoticons celebrated their 30th anniversary last month. Sorry
emoticon haters, regardless of your views and opinions on it, it’s 30th
anniversary clearly indicated that it is accepted that the emoticons are here
to stay with us for a long time, for now.
The
inception of the emoticons was way back in 1982, to be more précised, September
19, 1982. On that particular day, Prof. Scott Fahlman of Carnegre Mellon
University in Pittsburgh sent an email on an online electronic bulletin board
that included the first use of the sideways smiley face. Fahlman had seen how simple
jokes were often misunderstood. He attempted to find a way around this issue,
ergo.
The aim was simple; to allow those who posted
on the university bulletin board to differentiate between those attempting to
write humorous emails and those who weren’t.
Fahlman considers his this act of
inserting emoticons in his email silly. He expected his note might amuse a few
of his friends and that would be the end of it. But once his initial email had
been sent, it wasn’t long before it spread to other universities and research
labs via the primitive computer networks of those days. But within months, it
had gone international.
Now,
dozens of variations are available, mainly as little yellow computer graphics.
But Fahlman is not a fan of his creation. He finds them ugly and unnecessary.
According to him they ruin the challenge of trying to come up with a clever way
of expressing emotions using the standard keyboard characters.
Whatever
the emoticon haters or its creator has to say, emoticons still have many of its
admirers for whom their day is incomplete without an emoticon in their texts or
emails.
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