The Digital Smiley Turns 25

[Jeff]

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie-Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman sent the first digital smiley. :-)

The simple combination of colon-hyphen-parenthesis to create a horizontal "smiley face" launched a whole new way of expressing emotions. Smileys or emoticons are now a commonly accepted form of communication in instant messages, text messages and other forms of text-based, digital communication.

The original text of his proposal read:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(

Twenty-five years later we have many kinds of smileys, some text-based and others graphical, but generally understood by all.

To celebrate the anniversary, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award is sponsored by Yahoo Inc. and provides a $500 prize to the winner.

You can read all the background at Fahlman's website.

[Jeff]

Skype founder Janus has posted a photo of a banner hanging at Carnegie-Mellon University that commemorates the smiley: Birthday of the smiley on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Fanatic]

The smiley is the scourge of communication. It is sloppy and lazy, allowing people to use cutesy codes instead of choosing real words that convey meaning.

Imagine if Tolkein had use smileys to convey emotions in Lord of the Rings? Absurd.

The only place that smileys belong is on IM or text messages, where space is at a premium. But nowhere else. Really.

[smileycam]

Originally Posted by Fanatic

The smiley is the scourge of communication. It is sloppy and lazy, allowing people to use cutesy codes instead of choosing real words that convey meaning.

Imagine if Tolkein had use smileys to convey emotions in Lord of the Rings? Absurd.

The only place that smileys belong is on IM or text messages, where space is at a premium. But nowhere else. Really.

How about forums? :)