Very few will actually 'C' the difference!
On September 19th 2015, the emoticon ':-)' turned 33 years old along with its mates ':-(' and ';-)'. The emoticons have come along way from their original composition of simple punctuation marks to today's one click emojis.
Lets have a look at how the emoticons have made their way into our lives and also how they have substituted a major aspect of conversations: emotions.
On the 19th of September, 1982, Scott E Fahlman, a research professor at the Language Technologies Institute and Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon,composed the smiley for the first time on an online science bulletin board stating that it were to be used to imply that the sentence was a joke or to be taken lightly. He also introduced the sad face smiley.
According to Fahlman, the problem was that if someone made a sarcastic remark, a few readers would fail to get the joke, and each of them would post a lengthy diatribe in response. That would stir up more people with more responses, and soon the original thread of the discussion was buried. In at least one case, a humorous remark was interpreted by someone as a serious safety warning.
And this problem has been around ever since conversations have gone online and probably even since written letters.
But emoticons have managed to add emotion to words where they weren't sufficient enough.
All said and done, rather all punctuated and smiled at, there is great irony in the use of the emoticon. Today people have substituted words completely with the rise of emoticons. We frame conversations sometimes with only symbols and emojis and often are understood by our peers with such ease. We can combine two or more emojis to say a sentence that otherwise cost us 5-6 words. Emojis have taken us by the hand and given us more to say with less effort.
How has this helped us though? What impact has the emoticon or the recent emojis left on the people of today. One cannot deny the fact that it has harmed communication to a certain extent. Try having a conversation with a friend you chat with on a daily basis but this time using only word
s and not emoticons and you will definitely be asked if you're alright today. Your friend will probably not be able to comprehend your emotion while saying what you said or the style in which you said it or what you meant when you said it.
This is because emoticons today have taken the place of intonation, stress, punctuation, pauses, reactions, and all the other devices that usually added flavor to the written language. The emoticons have help you express more than words can say and probably taught you to say without words.
This has its pros and cons. We can be misunderstood so often just because every persons understanding of every emoji is different. Our use of emojis in different circumstances are different. I don't even have to get started on how every emoticon could translate differently across cultures around the world.
Let us not forget to mention that the recent upgrade in emojis offer the same face in different skin colours. What do you have to say about that?
In conclusion, the emoticon may have contributed in a huge way to speedy conversations and given us expression where there was no other way to express, but lets not forget the beauty of words and the importance of them spelled correctly and completely. Emojis may speak louder than words but emojis can't say exactly what you feel the way words can.
On September 19th 2015, the emoticon ':-)' turned 33 years old along with its mates ':-(' and ';-)'. The emoticons have come along way from their original composition of simple punctuation marks to today's one click emojis.
Lets have a look at how the emoticons have made their way into our lives and also how they have substituted a major aspect of conversations: emotions.
On the 19th of September, 1982, Scott E Fahlman, a research professor at the Language Technologies Institute and Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon,composed the smiley for the first time on an online science bulletin board stating that it were to be used to imply that the sentence was a joke or to be taken lightly. He also introduced the sad face smiley.According to Fahlman, the problem was that if someone made a sarcastic remark, a few readers would fail to get the joke, and each of them would post a lengthy diatribe in response. That would stir up more people with more responses, and soon the original thread of the discussion was buried. In at least one case, a humorous remark was interpreted by someone as a serious safety warning.
And this problem has been around ever since conversations have gone online and probably even since written letters.
But emoticons have managed to add emotion to words where they weren't sufficient enough.
All said and done, rather all punctuated and smiled at, there is great irony in the use of the emoticon. Today people have substituted words completely with the rise of emoticons. We frame conversations sometimes with only symbols and emojis and often are understood by our peers with such ease. We can combine two or more emojis to say a sentence that otherwise cost us 5-6 words. Emojis have taken us by the hand and given us more to say with less effort.How has this helped us though? What impact has the emoticon or the recent emojis left on the people of today. One cannot deny the fact that it has harmed communication to a certain extent. Try having a conversation with a friend you chat with on a daily basis but this time using only word
s and not emoticons and you will definitely be asked if you're alright today. Your friend will probably not be able to comprehend your emotion while saying what you said or the style in which you said it or what you meant when you said it.This is because emoticons today have taken the place of intonation, stress, punctuation, pauses, reactions, and all the other devices that usually added flavor to the written language. The emoticons have help you express more than words can say and probably taught you to say without words.
This has its pros and cons. We can be misunderstood so often just because every persons understanding of every emoji is different. Our use of emojis in different circumstances are different. I don't even have to get started on how every emoticon could translate differently across cultures around the world.
Let us not forget to mention that the recent upgrade in emojis offer the same face in different skin colours. What do you have to say about that?
In conclusion, the emoticon may have contributed in a huge way to speedy conversations and given us expression where there was no other way to express, but lets not forget the beauty of words and the importance of them spelled correctly and completely. Emojis may speak louder than words but emojis can't say exactly what you feel the way words can.
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