The History of the Emoticon

 The History of the Emoticon

While sitting in class learning about different technologies that have shaped our lives and how we communicate with each other, I was fascinated with the history of the emoticon. Many of us use emojis in our daily lives to convey many different emotions. Sending a smiley face can show how proud, happy, or excited we are. Sending a red heart can show love or comfort during a difficult time. A frown isn’t just a frown-it can show pain, disgust, or anger. However, it’s important to remember the “origins” of the emoticon. How did we get from the beginning to today? 

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In 1982, Scott Fahlman noticed that there was a disconnect in the messages being sent through electronic platforms that his staff was using. Things were being interpreted in the wrong way and people weren’t understanding the jokes that were being said. Fahlman decided to put a post in his chat- place a colon with a dash and closed parentheses if you wanted to be funny. It worked! The simple keystrokes began to seep into the chats of other organizations, eventually spreading all over the world (https://time.com/3341244/emoticon-birthday/). 

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We have an innate desire to feel connected to others. Especially during the times that we are living in, we have resorted to utilizing text messages to check in with the ones that we love. Simply sending a “How are you doing?” followed by a smile and heart emoji can make the person on the other line feel loved and supported. On the same token, sending a message to someone with a snarky comment followed by a winking emoji can allow the other person to infer that you are joking with them, instead of acting rudely towards them. 

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As the group discussed in class, emoticons have evolved in so many different ways. We now have Bitmoji, Memoji, and GIFS which all allow us to share our emotions. They allow us to get creative with our messages and have fun with the people we are connecting with. Below is my Memoji, and I tried really hard to get it to look like me. 

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There’s even an entire MOVIE revolving around emojis (which developed from the emoticon). The Emoji Movie, which came out in 2017, would never exist if Fahlman didn’t come up with a new idea to bring joy into his coworker’s chatroom. Check out the trailer for it here! 

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The emoticon and its developments have really allowed humans to communicate with others in an intimate and personal way. The words that we speak have meaning, but so do the emojis that follow them. I think that that is such an influential component of our society and will continue to be as the years go on.

Sources

https://time.com/3341244/emoticon-birthday/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8pJt4dK_s4