I have always been thinking how much netizens are influenced by
the smiley faces and how boring e-mails and instant messages would
be without the emotional feelings transferred through them.
Twenty years ago (Sept 19, 1982),
Scott Fahlman who is known for
his work with neural networks, typed :-) in an online message.
"This is my little gift to the world, for better or worse.", says
Dr. Fahlman.
It was 7 years ago when I first started using the little smilies in my e-mail
messages and newsgroup submissions along with the admonition to "read it sideways."
and it's been pretty hard to
avoid using them (even in formal e-mails, or even worse, in snail mail).
See my collection
of smiley faces and emoticons including the
new reference for
Yahoo! messenger users. ;-)
Full story from Reuters
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