It took me some time to start liking the entire gamut of digital communication. I still remember the day when my best friend Lesley had sent me an email way back in the year 2000 - I was not particularly very happy with it. Initially I could neither comprehend her expressions nor her excitement. I thought I could not relate to my friend. I wanted to read a hand-written mail from her (which usually took weeks before it reached me).Often I miss the personal touch of an ordinary mail post - little errors, the handwriting, customized pictographs and times when we exchanged dry flower petals, glittering stickers among dozens of other things.
However, thousand plus emoticons (for many), smileys or pictographs (for others) across the globe each day is trying its best to add the missing personalization in the ever growing digital communication environment. Today there are perfect emoticons to express the accurate feeling of an individual at any point of time. The first person documented to have used the emoticons “:-)” and “:-(“, with a specific suggestion that they be used to express emotion, was Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University on the 19th of September 1982. Thus began the beautiful and colorful story of emoticons.
As a matter of fact, my chats with friends and family or e-mails to them are rarely completed without the use of emoticons and I feel they play an important role in the digital communication world. Communications in the world of social media (IM, FB, Twitter etc...) are more often very informal and precise since we are always on the run! Yet, it is true that we are still missing out on one important aspect of communication today and that is two people hardly see each other face while communicating in the e-world. Making it difficult sometimes to understand whether the person was ‘serious’, ‘joking’ or being ‘sarcastic’. At this juncture an emotional avatar or emoticons would save further explanation.
There are creative artist like Pat Byrnes who have pushed the envelope of emoticons a little further and have dug deep in to the subject to recreate emotions which are human-like called Smurks! Smurks are available for iPhone and ipads which an individual can use for email, twitter, Facebook among others. Facebook chats have become more interesting ever since I stumbled upon several emoticons signage recently apart from Emoinstaller a free application which integrates into Facebook automatically and allows a FB user to choose from dozens of emoticons while chatting. The only thing I did was click on the download option. Fantastic, I say ;-)
After Internet took away the pleasure of receiving frequent snail mails from me, I absolutely do not mind in indulging in emoticon enabled communication over FB chat, Gtalk, Messenger and emails which are getting more human-like with each passing day. They add that dash of color, force the lips to break into a smile and makes the fingers click away in glory.
*Few more FB emoticons for reference :-)
1 :) 2 :( 3 :p 4 :D 5 :o 6 ;) 7 8) 8 8| 9 >:( 10 :/
11:’( 12 O:) 13 :* 14 <3 15 ^_^ 16 -_- 17 o.O 18 >:O 19 :v 20 :3
21 :|] 22 (^^^) 23 :putnam: 24 <(") 25 :42:
Happy discovering the Social Media fabric.
3 comments:
I would categorize myself as a heavy IM user. I mainly use Gtalk and chatting has pretty much become my second nature. I really do not miss the personal touch in IM. It is true that even with the current emoticons, if someone is trying to find the personal/human touch in digital communications, he or she would be greatly disappointed.
Good post...i second your view, it is fact that digital communication has least place for eternal emotions...it is more of a commercial communication than a heartily one, though fast and always available which was unthinkable in the age of Uncle Pie. Internet has its limitation that it can't pass the emotions which happens when two people meet in person or a letter was written after hours of concentrations.
I absolutely agree with you Rita. An e-conversation these days is absolutely incomplete without an emoticon. It is in regards to this that often writing a semi- formal letter becomes a tricky situation. Especially if the conversation is meant to please someone- particularly someone of Canadian breeding but Indian origin. Finer nuances, mannerisms and colloquial expressions (pertinent to me as an Indian) are so difficult to get across, that I often miss using emoticons in semi-formal letters. Today the world has become smaller, yet it's inhabitants feel so distant from each other...Technology is a strange thing... so tangible yet unreal!
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