Blog Post 4; EOTO - The History & Evolution of the Emoticon :)

The History & Evolution of the Emoticon :)

 

    In today's world of technology and communication, it is almost unthinkable to send a message to someone without adding an emoji at the end to express our mood. I myself even feel like every other text I send ends with the classic ":)". Emojis and expressing emotions through messaging are a large part of online communication today, but why? 

    The word emoticon or emoji is a contraction of the words, emotional icon. The true definition of an

emoticon is a glyph used in computer-mediated communications that are meant to represent a facial expression in order to communicate the emotional state of the author. When the Internet was strictly text-based between the late 1960s to the 1990s, emoticons were read sideways such as the ":-)" and ":-(". Now, we have a wide array of specific emojis to depict specific emotions or reactions through messages.

    Although the first use of the emoticon has been debated, the first substantiated use came from an American computer scientist, Scott E. Fahlman. His use of the emoticon came from a message board post on September 19, 1982. He suggested ":-)" meant something humorous and ":-(" meant something more serious.

 

    The widespread popularity and growing availability of laptops, tablets, and phones have turned us into a society of texters, social media posters, and online friends. These gadgets are changing our use of language. Communication is now less face-to-face and arguably voice-to-voice, rather, it has merged fingertip-to-fingertip. We have started to change how we express and perceive meaning from these mediated interactions. With all of this digital change, emotions and emojis are helpful in replacing the nonverbal cues we are used to. Now we can succinctly convey our emotions not only to people but to strangers on the worldwide web. Emoticons and emojis are representations of body language in written form and the innocuous-looking symbols have quite a storied history.

    The evolution of the emoticon does not just end with a computer scientist realizing punctuation

symbols could portray emotion. The first place of the origin of emoticons is in Japan. The elaborate cartoons, some with motion, sparked the development of emojis, those of which we have integrated into our phones today. Emoticons and emojis first went viral as an easy way to convey joking and sarcasm. As we can see today, these little faces have come a long way and are one of the fastest-growing languages.

    Emoticons have been used in online communication for many years now and have developed depending on the language of use, letter input system, or community they are used in. Today, there are three different styles of emojis and emoticons. The Western Style, Asian Style, and Korean Style. Of course, because of the advancement of the internet, there are some crossovers and correlations between each of these styles. 

    In the Western Style, often referred to as the Western one-line type, the emoticons are written from left to right. They are written in the direction in which the culture of the West read and write. They are usually made up of two to four symbols. Most of the basic emoticons have a solid form but can be changed or displayed differently with small changes. There are also variants that can alter the meaning of the emoticon, therefore, changing the underlying emotion. For instance;

:( - Sadness

:) - Happy

             :D - Grin/Laughter

;) - Wink

:0 - Shock

:'( - Crying 

>:( -Angry

& many more.

    As shown above, with slight changes to the basic structure of the emoticon, the entire emotional characteristic of the emoticon changes. These easy changes are what helped to popularize the use of these emoticons and enhance online communication. 

    The second style of emoticons is the Asian Style. What is significant about the Asian Style emoticons is that they are not tilted to the side like the Western Style. The style emerged in the Japanese American Standard Code for Information Interchange Network or ASCII Net. The emoticons in this style are facing straight with an emphasis on the eyes. Two studies, one in 2007 from Hokkaido University and the other in 2009 from Glasglow University found that Japanese and Asian nations decipher human emotions by looking people in the eye, thus explaining why this style puts the emphasis there. In contrast, the Western Style and culture put the emphasis on the mouth as seen above. Here are a few examples of Asian Style emoticons; 

(T_T) - Crying/Sadness

(x_x) - Stressed

(-_-;) - Agitated

(^_^) - Happy

(^.^) - Suprised 

(-_~) - Wink

(~.~) - Sleepy

    We can see how these emoticons are a bit more complex and focus on the change in the eye. It is also worth mentioning the broader and more complex emotions some of these emoticons display. The Asian Style emoticons were one of the biggest influencers in the creation of the emoji we most often use today. 

    Finally, the last syle of emoticon is the Korean Style. In North Korea emoticons are written using hangal letters and are extremely popular. Korean and Japanese or Asian Styles have many similarities ad contain letters called jamo. The most popular characters are ㅅ or ㅂ which show the mouth and nose. Symbols like ㅇ, ㅎ, and ㅍ show eyes. Some faces include quotation marks in their design and some don't. Jamo vowels like ㅜ also replace some characters when showing a specific emotion. Underscores can sometimes be omitted from the face and semicolons are used in groups. Here are a few examples of Korean Style emoticons;

ㅇㅅㅇ - Happy

ㅇㅂㅇ - Shock

- ㅅ - - Angry/Dissapointed

/ / ㅅ / / - Tearful

;;;;, ㅇㅅㅇ;;;, - Confused

ㅠ _ ㅠ - Sad

‘ㅅ’ b - Thumbs Up

    The Korean and Asian Style emoticons also have relations to anime emoticons. Forums for anime that use the English language adopted the emoticons for which the standard ASCII characters on the western keyboards used. This is why they are often called "anime-style" emoticons. Here are some examples of these kinds of emoticons;

    In the 40-year-old history of text-based communication, emoticons have gained a status of an indispensable means of support for text-based messages. One of the primary functions of the internet is to connect people online. Today, the use of emoticons in online conversation contributes to the facilitation of the online communication process in emails, instant message applications, or blogs. ;)

    

    With this bit of history of the emoticon, we now get to what we know and love as emojis today. Apple introduced the emoji keyboard to its operating system in 2011. To say the Internet went crazy would be an understatement. The Emoji Research Team has been tracking and analyzing the use of emojis as a rising phenomenon since its introduction. They stated that by 2015, 92% of people communicating online used emojis and that a year later, 2.3 trillion messages sent had an emoji in them. Small but mighty, the emoji resonates with populist power. Over 300 million Facebook posts per day and 45 million per day on Instagram include an emoji. This popularity and increased usage has continued growing and makes emojis easily recognizable and for some, an important part of online communication today.

    Preliminary research has suggested a positive impact when communicating with emoticons. Emoticons provide electronic gestures and convey the warmth of face-to-face communication that most online forms lack. Emoticon supporters say that they help online communication more than they hurt it, despite what others argue. 

 

    In the graph, we see at the base, emoticons are the most direct way to display the absence of emotion in online environments. The emotions stand in for that nonverbal communication missing in online communication, which many people appreciate. It is also argued that emoticons clarify the tone of the message without the need for lengthy exposition. It is also useful to include emoticons in some communication as the message you send may be understood better with the little attached face.

  

    Despite the preponderance of positive accounts in favor of emoticon use, there are still some rebuttals as to the negative side effects of emoticons. Some argue that the use of emoticons has caused extensive controversy online. Critics of emoticons also argue that they erode the ability of people to communicate clearly and use language creatively in cyberspace and in other forms of writing. They also say that they are a lazy way of communicating and negatively affect the credibility of the author. 

    While these points are true, I say that usage is all in the hands of the author. When choosing to display emotion in online communication you have to be cautious of how it looks to the reader. 

    After learning the history and context of emoticons and emojis, we can see how they are much more than a silly graphic expression but rather, an example of certain cultures and the new wave of literacy. Emoticons and emojis expand expression and in doing so, open themselves to re-appropriation, interpretation, and sometimes misinterpretation, along with the possibilities of artistic creation. Language is constantly changing to keep up with society. Emojis are one of the most notable changes as communication transitioned online so quickly. Because of this, new technologies resulted in subtle changes in the way we as people communicate with each other, hence as we've seen, emoticons and emojis.

    Emojis are arguably a giant case study in how technology and the human capacity for communication are working hand-in-hand. They will undoubtedly continue to change form and expand in range and scope. Experts even predict that at some point emojis and emoticons will be replaced by something totally different. 

    In the meantime, we continue to use these little yellow faces to depict our emotions in online communication. I think we as people owe a great deal of credit to the 'inventors' of emojis and emoticons. Think about how different online communication would be if we didn't have the option to send a little ':)' after our message. 

Thanks for reading! :)