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. ;-)
