Emoticons 101

The term emoticon (emotion + icon) refers to the little smiley faces people put at the end of sentences.  They can be used to portray a variety of emotions, so people can discern the true meaning of what you say.  With emoticons, you can easily communicate a tone, otherwise inaccessible through normal text.

For example, take these two sentences into consideration:

I love your new shoes; I am so jealous :)

I love your new shoes; I am so jealous >:(

As you can see, in the first sentence, the comment is happy and sincere, while in the second sentence, the writer appears to have formed a grudge about his/her friend’s trendy footwear.

There are many different emoticons people use, but I only consider a small portion of them to be legitimate.  My basic rule is that if the facial expression or body language of the emoticon is quickly and easily identifiable, then it is fine.

Examples of legitimate emoticons are:
:)       :(       >:(       :P       :D       D:       :O       o.O       :/       >:D

I hesitate to list a lot of bad ones so they don’t catch on, but for the sake of consistency, here are a few:
:S       =)       8)       XD       :[

Also, if you form emoticons by adding a”-” for a nose, you need to seriously reconsider your life.

For the most part, emoticons are helpful for informal communication, but overused and often irritating.

Finally, if you consider yourself at all to be a professional, never use emoticons, it makes you look like a 15 year old girl, not a reputable person.