The on-line community has come up with a set of what are
called smilies (or emoticons) to help the expression of emotion
using text.
The most common smiley is :-) turn your head 90 degrees
to your left and you should see a happy face. The winking face ;-)
is used to convey light sarcasm or humour.
Let’s take a look again at Teresa’s last response, there is still some
uncertainty about her mood.
For goodness sake!! I *said* I want 4!!!
Is Teresa actually angry or is she just having a bit of fun?
If Simon is a friend of Teresa’s he will probably know the answer to that
question but if he isn’t a close friend he might be feeling quite alarmed
by her response 8-0 (no, not a football
score but an alarmed smiley!).
If Teresa had sent this reply we would be quite sure that she is joking:
For goodness sake!! I *said* I want 4!!! ;-)
There are many smilies in use. Here are a few examples of some which
are commonly used:
:-) Smiley face
;-) Wink
:-( Unhappy face
:-| Indifference
:-@ Scream
Can you guess what the following smilies represent?
-
:-D
-
:-/
-
%-\
-
*<|:-)
-
;-)}<////>
Take a look at the Canonical Smiley List for
help.
You must use smilies with caution because, as you can see from
some of the examples above, they aren’t always obvious! The ones most commonly
used are the wink and the smile and it is fairly safe to
presume that the Internet community understand their meaning.
