Smile Like You Mean It :)

It seems that the written word takes us a lot further than it used to, in fact we may even use it more to communicate than the good ole face to face. This of course has been helped along with technology, SMS, Facebook Chat, Twitter (something I still have no idea about & hope to keep it that way for the rest of my life), MSN... the list goes on... I think.

There is only one major flaw in using the written word to communicate: "Reader Interpretation". With so many sentences, conversations and words floating above us in cyberspace these days, how can we, the writers, ensure that our seemingly harmless replies are not turned into a five-year bout of silent treatment? Thank goodness for emoticons!! :D

Now with emoticons, we must treat them with respect... much like our own faces? So, being the helpful person that I am, and feeling quite an affinity with my own face, I will provide below a brief guide as to the appropriate application of said emoticons.

:) - The smiley face, the birth of the emoticon, yet at times misused. It should generally be used to add that genuine feel to your sentence e.g. "thank you for writing this blog Phil :) " - not necessarily a statement someone would use, but gratitude is something you want to sound genuine.

:( - Sad face, there is opposition in all things, emoticons not being an exception. This one can be somewhat tricky as sadness has many different shades, so as with most things, this emoticon must not be taken out of context e.g. "I has the flu :( " - this coupled with the cute but incorrect form of the verb "have", implies that while there situation is unfortunate, this person is not spiraling down into an abyss of sorrow.

:D - Colon dee, should be used to express extreme excitement, or as the next step up from the smiley face, so if you feel someone is building up from something good in their life to something great you may wish to use it like so:
Not You: "So I found 20 bucks on the street today..."
You: "Cool as :) " - see how we use the smiley face first
Not You: "...And I used it to buy you two tickets to that thing you love!"
You: ":D" - By going from smiley face to big smiley face we appear to be genuinely more excited about the news of receiving what will soon be DIAMONDS from Not You.

:P - This emoticon is one that we would think in a conversation rather than express it with our face. Appropriate times to use this may be to imply that you recognize the awkwardness of a statement you just made e.g. "I smell like rat feet :P "
It can also be used to sound like a flirt e.g. "You looked more attractive than usual today :P " this phrase could also be misinterpreted as sarcasm, another application for the tongue smiley.

:I - Last on my list today as my fingers are starting to cramp. This is one of my favorite emoticons and I often use it to express extreme awkwardness, shock or disappointment e.g. "Realized I am now 20 years old :I " or even "Saw a guy's butt crack today :I "

So, whilst not covering all emoticons (as there are just a Bajillion times more emoticons than before) this will hopefully give you an idea of how to better use or even interpret our dear friends the emoticons.

I'M LAME :P,
Phil