Emoticons. We use them all the time. Some people like to have them converted to smileys (see above). I prefer that they stay as ASCII characters.
Even when they’re ASCII, we generally know what they mean.
:-) means happy face or smiling
:-( means sad face or frowning
;-) means winky face or winking
:-D means grinning
:-P means sticking out your tongue
Emoticons are supposed to help us express emotion. They’re supposed to add some non-verbal information to our text conversations.
And they do. But sometimes they don’t really give enough information. Because yes, the above descriptions are true–but what do you mean by them?
I use a limited emoticon library, but what I use has very definite meanings (and not really exactly what they look like.)
What my emoticons mean
:-) means I’m happy, content, all is well
:-( means I just wrote something that I find sad
;-) means “inside joke alert”, that not everybody will get this but I think you will
:-P means I’m teasing you
What do your emoticons mean?
Here is my “emoticon Library”
:) I usually use this when I pay someone a compliment or when speaking about Disney movies.
:D This is what I use if someone has payed me a compliment or something of that nature.
:/ I use this to convey a “well, this sucks” kind of attitude.
:( I really only use the “sad face” when I am complaining about school.
;) My teasing emoticon!