Emoticons every day we use them in our mails, on instant messengers, forums, blogs or chats. If you don’t use them yourself you can found a lot of them by surfing through the Internet. But what did you know about them, here are some facts you should know about them.

The word “emoticon” quite literally derives from “emotion icon“. These small pieces of art are a form of expression for our emotions or feelings. Emoticons, or “emotes” or “smilies” as they often reffered to, are a special type of pixel art, whereby an individual can express themselves without the need for words. A picture tells us a thousand words and that is exactly what an emoticon is designed for.


–zacthetoad

The first emoticons were published on March 30, 1881 by magazine Puck. Or was the first emoticon print in the transcription of a 1862 speech by President Lincoln.

On September 19, 1982, Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Scott E. Fahlman introduced the very first sideway smiley on an online message board to distinguish serious posts from jokes. The original post was as follows:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use:

:-(

Since then Scott E. Fahlman is known as “the father of the smiley“.

Maybe you’ve allready noticed that emoticons have geographical styles; there are western emoticons read sideways (from left to right) and estern emoticons are read upright. Some exmaples:

smile/happy
western: :-) eastern: (^_^)
frown/sad
western: :-( eastern: (T_T)
wink
western: ;-) eastern: (^_~)
shocked
western: :-0 eastern: (o_O)

Over the years emoticons evolved from these basic text symbols into complex creations of art.

History of Emoticons

  • I – The original emoticon, first used by Scott E. Fahlman on 19th of September, 1982.
  • II – Basic variation of the original, automatically converted.
  • III – Simple shaded yellow smiley, first color used for emoticons, from Mazeguy.
  • IV – Simple yellow smiley, with big eyes, from Fool.
  • V – Developed emoticon, shading based on camelhijackation’s work.
  • VI – Completely developed, based on Erni’s work.