Inspired by the thread on cursing and whether it reduces one's credibility as a communicator, I began to wonder where "smilies" fit into the mix. I'll admit it: I've been an avid user of smilies in email, IM, even text messages. But lately, I don't see as many of them. Has the world tired of smilies, or have we simply grown up and moved past these cutesy embellishments? While I usually stick to the basics, I've always been amazed at the creativity and complexity behind some smilies. At one point, a few years ago, creating new smilies had become somewhat of an art form. Some of the more creative ones I can recall: |-O yawning :-& tongue-tied >:-< REALLY angry (::()::) a Band-aid (Quick, where's the groaning smiley when you need it?) But these days, I rarely see more than the :) or possibly :-). What happened to the ;) when somone is messing with your mind or the :-o when someone moves up your deadline by a week? Have we graduated to the point where we don't need to express emotions in our online communication, or have we just given up that, with or without the smilies, email and IM are simply void of true emotion? Maybe we're afraid that our use of smilies will be misunderstood or misinterpreted by the recipient of our messages. Or perhaps we're so gifted in crafting emails that we can fully express emotion with words alone -- no smilies required. So I invite you to be brutally honest. Is my use of smilies making me the communicators equivalent of a 12-year-old? Or is there still a place for smilies in what is otherwise a rather cold and distant way to communicate? Bonus points for using smilies in your comments. ;-) |
