Emoticon “Smiley” Turns 25

Many media outlets have picked up an AP story on this week’s 25th anniversary of the digital smiley face. The friendly colon-followed-by-a-hyphen-and-a-parenthesis has become a essential expression in online communication. :-)

The anniversary date is connected to Scott E. Fahlman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who claims to have written the first-ever emoticon while posting a message to an online bulletin board on September 19, 1982. He wrote:

“I propose the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways.”

The sideways-smiley then spread to other universities, Fahlman says, and eventually to the broader online community. Other emoticons (such as winks) later emerged. Fahlman has even written a history piece on the smiley.

Despite their popularity, emoticons are loathed by many writers and linguists. Consider this perspective from a UK writer:

“If your jokes need markers, you shouldn’t be allowed to make them. Fahlman and his ilk appear to forget that people have been writing since before the days of the internet. We already have tools for conveying humour, and plenty of other emotions. They are called ‘words’… Emoticons are vile and for idiots.”

There’s little doubt that emoticons and other shortcuts have led to increasingly informal, sloppy writing. Many technology platforms (think instant messaging, Twitter and others), however, are driven by brevity. As long as we have limited characters to express our emotions, there will be a place for emoticons.