SMILE: Love them or hate them, emoticons have become a ubiquitous symbol of modern culture.
It was 35 years ago today that a professor proposed the use of a smiley face to clarify the meaning behind written computer messages.
The Associated Press states:
In 1982, the smiley emoticon was invented by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, who suggested punctuating humorously intended computer messages with a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal “smiley face.” 🙂
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Scott made the suggestion after someone posted — as a joke — a note on a fake mercury spill to an online message board. In the fallout of a joke that not everybody got, Fahlman proposed using smiley faces or frowning faces to mark intent.
The encyclopedia also outlines the difference between emoticons — short for emotional icon — and emojis.
Emoticons came first and are built with numbers, letters and punctuation marks.
Emojis — from the Japanese words for picture and character — are actual pictures. A simple emoji might be a yellow smiley face, but there are a large number of faces, animals and objects represented.
Emojis have become so popular as to have inspired “The Emoji Movie” — with actor Sir Patrick Stewart playing the “Poop” emoji. Several other well known actors and actresses took on the roles of the graphic images, too.
Here’s a few emoticons we found online:
• variations on winking, smirking include 😉 or ;-]
• surprise or shock :-O of >:O
• angel O:) or devil }:)
• Elvis Presley ~:-
• Santa Claus *<|:-)
• John Lennon //0-0\
• a high five o^o
