Emoticons: "Written Gestures" For Expressing Yourself Online

Talking online has become a favorite activity of millions of people. Teenagers rehash the day's events with friends, grandparents keep in touch with grandchildren, businesspeople seal deals with the click of a "SEND" button. All of them love the speed of online communications. They send an e-mail or an instant message, or post a note in a chat chat room, and in an instant people across the country or in distant lands can read or respond to it.

There is something nagging about online talk, though. It leaves a dissatisfying taste because it is so one dimensional. People miss the nuances of emotion and overlays of meaning that we transmit during face to face convesations. Lacking are the gestures and tones of voice that give color and life to our communications, subtleties by which we monitor and communicate submessages.

To help fill this gap, computer users have developed symbols to convey their humor, disappointment, sarcasm and other moods and attitudes. Although these symbols are not as varied or spontaneous as the nonverbal cues of face to face interaction, they are useful.

Some correspondents prefer aesthetically pleasing emoticons. They use the profile version : :^) :^)) :^(

Correspondents also use abbreviations to indicate their emotions

IAB I am bored

ILY I love you

JK Just kidding

LOL Laughing out loud

OTF On the floor (laughing)

ROTF Rlling on the floor

ROFLWTIME Rolling on the floor laughing with tears in my eyes

With advancing technology, such shorthand might become unneccessary. Now that we can include video in our e-mail, recipients can see our image and hear our voice. Eventually messages that include verbal and facial cues may replace much written e-mail. As long as written e-mail exists, however, some system of symbols to substitute for gestures will remain.