The History of the Emoticon

Provided by Wikimedia

The technology background that interested me the most was the history of the emoticon.

As we all know, emojis or emoticons are used frequently by technology users, specifically millennials. I never really understood truly how they came to be until this class.

The first use of an emoticon was from computer scientist Scott E. Fahlman on September 19, 1982. He came up with this idea by suggesting that ":-)" would indicate humorous posts on a message board an ":-(" would indicate serious posts.

It was efficient and way ahead of its time. Now, emoticons can move and take various different forms.

However, with every good thing comes some criticism.

Many people feel the use of emoticons has deteriorated how people communicate clearly and contributes to a "lazy means of communication".

It is a bit of a controversial topic I suppose, on whether emoticons hurt more than they help. However, I think it's all relative to how we develop when it comes to technology and communication.

I do agree that emoticons shouldn't be used in serious professional environments, but for certain projects, they can add a fun twist. 

And in terms of using emoticons to communicate in our personal lives, I can't think of a better way to express my thoughts and feelings... besides actual words of course.