Death Of The Emoticon Was Greatly Exaggerated >:(
Regular readers of this column know that I have strong opinions, particularly when it comes to technology. I figure I have to be that way in order to deserve the title of “diva.”
I’m also always on the watch for other people’s opinionated, diva-like behavior and I found some grist for my mill in a recent piece on CNN.com.
Taking A Stand
The article in question was written by humorists Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich, who write a blog called Stuff Hipsters Hate. They took to CNN to call for the death of the emoticon. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, emoticon is the name for those goofy smiley and frowny faces that people create using various combinations of keyboard characters like colons, semi-colons and parenthesis. You’ve likely seen these things used (and overused) in e-mails and on Facebook.
Bartz and Ehrlich went so far as to do an informal online survey to find out which emoticons are most hated. Here are the top vote-getters:
:P
>:(
:)
:/
:(
The authors then urged readers to give up emoticons for an entire month with the hope that they would realize that electronic communication without them is just fine.
Well, I took their challenge and lasted about three hours. I have to admit, I love emoticons. I am generally not a fan of cutesy stuff in e-mails or online. For example, you will never find me using “lol” on a Facebook post, nor will you see me “LMAO.” (If you don’t know what that last one stands for, ask the nearest teenager for a translation.)
But I need my smiley face emoticon. I am, as anyone who knows me well can attest, a rather sarcastic person and I need emoticons in my e-mails to indicate that I’m joking. Without them, I’m pretty sure I would have been fired three times over by now.
Too Much Of A Good Thing
I can agree with Bartz and Ehrlich and other critics of emoticons that they are often overused.
For example, I would never use one of those animated emoticons that bounce around your e-mail. I believe that simplicity is important when employing emoticons.
In fact, I primarily stick with the smiley face :), frowny face :( or, my person favorite, the winky face ;). And I use them sparingly, only to make a point. There are those people — and you know who you are — who seem compelled to conclude every e-mail correspondence with a smile. And I have a message for those people: You aren’t that precious.
But to take away our emoticons would take away the little fun we have left in the office. We are all much too serious at work. Political correctness has robbed us of most jokes and there are no water coolers left to gather around and gossip about the boss. Without the emoticon, we would be a humorless race of glassy-eyed, white-collar workers.
There’s also something poetic about the simplicity of combing two characters to evoke an emotion. I don’t want to wax too philosophical here, but emoticons, when used properly, do a fabulous job of hitting just the right emotional chord in electronic communications.
So I’ll keep using my emoticons, thank you very much, even if the rest of the hipsters out there give them up as part of their New Year’s resolutions.
;)
Got news for our Digital Diva column? E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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