The smiley situation is getting out of hand...>:|

we need smiley etiquette

Published on April 14, 2005 By Toblerone In Misc

A few articles ago I invented the word remoticon:

Remoticon (re-mo-ti-con):
1) A smiley that is entirely inscructible except to the person that uses it (for instance a non-standard smiley that you've never seen before making some face which you've never seen on a person and thus is completely meaningless)
2) A smiley that make no sense/is ambiguous in the context in which it is used.

Smileys, as I understand it, started out as a way of saying "just kidding" so it would stop huge flame wars over something that was meant to be just a joke anyway. Nowadays though smileys are also being used in much the same way as we normally used facial expressions. The problem is that now it is getting hard to tell if a person is using one to qualify a sentence as being sarcastic or whether is just an expression of how you feel for example:

I love Michael Jackson, I would let him baby sit for me

could mean either:

1) Are you kidding? There is no way I would leave MJ alone with my kids
or
2) I'm a huge MJ fan. I am happy about him being alone with my kids.

I shall refer to the first use as qualifying smiley use and the second as expressive smiley use.
I too am guilty of using smileys in both ways (NOT with the above sentence though!). The worst way of using a smiley though is when you use an expressive smiley in a sacarstic way which would require a qualifying smiley to clarify so example number 1 could be written:

I love Michael Jackson, I would let him baby sit for me

However people who use sarcastic expressive smileys always leave out the qualifying smiley because they believe that their sarcasm is implied when in fact half the time the other person has no f**king idea whether they are kidding or not.

or sometime smileys can be half qualifying half expressive/half qualifying for example

I think you're hot

Which could be expressive in that you really think they are hot but qualifying in that you mean it in a friendly sort of way and not a "I'm going start stalking you/going to leave my husband for you" sort of way.

Now if you have known the person using the smiley for sometime you can usually deceipher its intended usage but even then it can be easy to get confused. I don't think we can ever hope to standardise smiley use but I think we can be more mindful of confusing smiley usage. Personally I think I may go back to simply saying "just kidding" or using j/k as shorthand.

What are your thoughts?

Comments

island_gurl12

on Apr 14, 2005

Heh, i never thought about smileys that way before, normally i get what the other person meant cuz i know them enough to know what they mean. But if there's a smile after something said i normally take it the litteral way. Heh i think you worry too much!

Toblerone

on Apr 14, 2005

I't doesn't really worry me as such I just find it a little confusing sometimes and it isn't a problem with people I know well. Often often JU however I'm writing to to people I don't know very well. When you have only ever known a person through writing it can be hard to tell if you really know them well anyway.

But if there's a smile after something said i normally take it the litteral way.

I know a few people that use them sacastically, me included, for example the one in my headline would suggest that I am extremely angry about the situation but I was just putting it there as a joke (a feeble joke yes, but a joke all the same).

dynamaso

on Apr 14, 2005

Hmm, interesting. I've use the occasional emoticon, but I'm not generally a fan of them. I like to think my written vocabulary and expression is wide and good enough that I can express what I need to say without a smiley etc. although I have learnt since being here it is better to use as many devices as you can just in case.

ParaTed2k

on Apr 14, 2005

I have no idea what you are talking about Toblerone! ;~D

island_gurl12

on Apr 14, 2005

(@ö@)

I love koalas! (sorry, i'm bored

)

TheFazz

on Apr 14, 2005

...they believe that their sarcasm is implied when in fact half the time the other person has no f**king idea whether they are kidding or not

Even though I don't use smileys much, I do hope I didn't inspire that part...

I still haven't figured out what the "money-mouth" smiley on AIM means. What the hell is :-$, and in what situation could you possibly find a use for it?

Toblerone

on Apr 14, 2005

Even though I don't use smileys much, I do hope I didn't inspire that part...

Don't worry Fazz this is just a general rant inspired by years of seeing message board mix ups, I'm really not that bothered by it. But yes it was mostly inspired by you

*evil laugh* (j/k)

I still haven't figured out what the "money-mouth" smiley on AIM means. What the hell is :-$, and in what situation could you possibly find a use for it?

That's a classic remoticon. What the hell does in it mean "put your money where your mouth is" or "british smile"....

NJforever

on Apr 16, 2005

I use emoticons alot, but rarely for anything but sarcasm and feeble jokes. I generally "get" what everyone means when they use them, but that's just me, the guy who strikes a chord with 2-year olds but wins over few his own age.

Ionolast

on Apr 16, 2005

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