Emoticons (called "smileys" by some programs) are
a combination of symbols to form an icon that helps
express emotion. For example, when you string together
a colon, a hyphen and a right-parenthesis, you're expressing
a smile. If you look at it sideways, it even looks like
a smile! :-)
Instant messaging and chat are very informal methods
of communicating, and it is common to use acronyms, abbreviations
and emoticons to help keep the conversation flowing smoothly.
Of course, one of the biggest obstacles in communication
by written language alone is that you don't have the benefit
of hearing the tone of the other person's voice, or seeing their
body language. Those aural and visual cues help you discern
between sincerity and sarcasm; humor and anger. Emoticons give
you a way to add those "cues" back into the conversation.
Some instant messaging and chat programs will convert
your emoticons into a graphic that makes the emotion even more
clear. The following table shows some of the more commonly used
emoticons, how you type them, and what they look like in the
most popular instant messaging programs.
