Smileys and Emoticons - Their Functions and
Meanings

We all communicate with people that we come in contact both directly and indirectly each day. Such persons may be family members, co workers, store clerks, business partners, and other such persons just to name a few. When you are having a face to face conversation with someone you can easily see their facial expression and is able to tell if that person is bored, happy, sad, smiling, angry and so forth. Likewise, having a conversation on the phone we also can, to an extent, tell if that person is bored, excited, happy, sad, smiling, angry etc. just by listening to the tone of his/her voice. However, communicating through the internet is much different and more difficult to detect the mood of someone. Sometimes we may be able to detect a persons mood by the person?s tone of writing or if the person outright expresses this; similar to what you might be able to do in mails (letters) and books. However, there is the potential for one to misunderstand a person?s thoughts or the message that he or she might be trying to convey to the reader/s. This problem is made possible due to the fact that there are no facial expressions, body language or any tone of voice that can help to interpret a person?s thought or mood. Not to mention if the sender intended to be humorous, sarcastic or ironic. This makes a considerable difference in the way in which that message is conveyed and understood. Most chatrooms, newsgroups, blogs, forums, emails, instant messengers e.g. MSN Messenger, YIM, AIM, ICQ and many others, all use the written word which, can so easily be misunderstood by the receiver.

As a result of this problem, a shorthand method of expressing one' s moods emerged on the internet. This helps the receiver (s) to get a much better understanding of the message that the sender is conveying while also helping the sender save much time and difficulty expressing his/her self thus making it much easier. This shorthand method of expressing ones mood uses standard keyboard symbols as emotional icons (symbolic picture) thus the name emoticons. This is sometimes better known as "smileys?. The arrangement of these keyboard characters that are intended to convey an emotion, are usually viewed sideways. This means, in order for you to read some of these characters, you will have to tilt your head or rotate the emoticons 90 degree clockwise, in your head. Most emotions (smilies) will look like a face (eyes, nose, and mouth).

Interestingly, the modern version of smileys which is now popular on the internet is what we most simply call today also as emoticons. These are in a sense, smileys (emotion icons) in graphics or graphical emoticons. These serve the same purpose as text based characters (smileys) and are just graphical representation of feelings. In other words, replacing them with some colorful images, or even animations (some are also able to produce sounds). One advantage of graphical emotion icons (smileys) is that they are more easy to decipher, because of the graphic face that humans can read or interpret more readily from our daily interaction with people that we see or meet from our day to day activities. The untrained eye often finds these more easy to understand, when the sender express his/herself feelings, whether it was intended to indicate pleasure, approval, or humor in the form of an image. Interestingly it may not be a surprise to you to know that smileys (text based) can sometimes in a message confuse the receiver (reader) in terms of what mood you they are trying to convey! Thus, graphical emoticons are very widely used. Emoticons today are very popular and are used in e-mails, chatrooms and Web forum posts just to name a few. There are also special programs that have been developed that can easily be downloaded to your computer as well as others that can easily be inserted into emails and browsers. There also email services offering these fancy emoticons in emails.

Please note that smileys (emoticons) are created by internet users to save keystrokes and to add emotions to their message. Thus, these are informal internet expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions. The following examples listed below are by no means a comprehensive list but should however provide you with adequate knowledge for you to start deciphering and conversing in this popular smiley language on your phone (text messaging) and the internet such as in emails, chatroom, message board post (web forums) and instant messaging. Included also are graphical emoticons which definitely don?t need any deciphering : )

---

:] or :-] or :) or :-) Smile, happy, humour, joke, laughter, friendliness, occasionally sarcasm
;-)Smile with a wink

:<})User with mustache, smiling
:-||Mad
:( or :-(Unhappy, sad, anger, or upset
:' -(Crying
:~Also crying
:-))Really happy

:/ or :\ or :-/ or :-\undicided, confused, or skeptical
:Q or :-QConfusion
:S or :-Sincoherence or loss of words
:@ or :-@shock or screaming
:O or :-Osurprise, yelling or realization of an error ("uh oh!")
>:)malicious contentment

>:(strong anger or discontent
>:Dmalicious joy
-0_o-confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
0.oconfusion or shock, signifying the user saying "WHAT!?!?"; also designating a drunken or high state
?_?confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
9_9"rolling eyes",express annoyance

:D or :-DBig grin
:-*A kiss
:-P~A lick
:-oWow! or I'm surprised
:-|Grim
:-PSticking out your tongue

:-User happens to be Popeye
:-/Perplexed
=:OFrightened (hair standing on end)
=8OBug-eyed with fright
:-}Embarassed smile
:-)<>>>>>Basic Smiley with a necktie

;-^)Tongue in cheek
%*@:-(Hung over
:-~~~Drooling
>:)Perplexed look
.)Keeping an eye out for you
8:-)Glasses on forehead

8:[Normal smiling face of a gorilla
0:-)Angel
]:-|[Robot
(:V)Duck
3:-oCow
:-]Vampire

(_8-(|)Homer Simpson
C|:-=Charlie Chaplin
=|:-)=Abe Lincoln
*<:-)Santa Claus
-:-)User sports a mohawk and admires Mr. T
(:)-)Scuba diver

:-'|User has a cold
:-{}User with heavy lipstick
:-)8User is well dressed
>:-<Mad
*#:-)Scotsman wearing his Scottish tam
%-^User is another Picasso

XDLaughing, crossed eyes
XPSticking tongue out while laughing, crossed eyes
=_=tired, with bags under eyes
^///^blushing
<3a heart; love. For hate, place a slash "/" between the two characters
==agreement. For disagreement: !=

#-)User partied all night
<:IDunce
:-|"Have an ordinary day!" Smiley
:}{:Kisses
oooo(0) (0)ooooToes
(-_-)Secret smile

Some examples of Japanese emoticons

^_^Smile

^o^;>Excuse me
^^;Cold sweat
^o^Happy
*^o^*Exciting
(^_^)/Banzai smiley
( ; _ ; ) crying

m( _ _ )m apologies/thank you

(>_<) angry

(+_+) shocked/disappointed

(@_@) ill/hangover

---

To see some example of graphical emoticons click the links below. This is done in order for the site to load much faster.

Graphical Emoticons - Image A

Graphical Emoticons - Image B

For Free Graphical Emoticons click the link below:
FREE emoticons

Read The Full Article:
http://universalfacts.blogspot.com/2006/05/smileys-and-emoticons-their-functions.
html

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Emoticons and Smileys - Their Functions and
Meanings

We all communicate with people that we come in contact both directly and indirectly each day. Such persons may be family members, co workers, store clerks, business partners, and other such persons just to name a few. When you are having a face to face conversation with someone you can easily see their facial expression and is able to tell if that person is bored, happy, sad, smiling, angry and so forth. Likewise, having a conversation on the phone we also can, to an extent, tell if that person is bored, excited, happy, sad, smiling, angry etc. just by listening to the tone of his/her voice. However, communicating through the internet is much different and more difficult to detect the mood of someone. Sometimes we may be able to detect a persons mood by the person?s tone of writing or if the person outright expresses this; similar to what you might be able to do in mails (letters) and books. However, there is the potential for one to misunderstand a person?s thoughts or the message that he or she might be trying to convey to the reader/s. This problem is made possible due to the fact that there are no facial expressions, body language or any tone of voice that can help to interpret a person?s thought or mood. Not to mention if the sender intended to be humorous, sarcastic or ironic. This makes a considerable difference in the way in which that message is conveyed and understood. Most chatrooms, newsgroups, blogs, forums, emails, instant messengers e.g. MSN Messenger, YIM, AIM, ICQ and many others, all use the written word which, can so easily be misunderstood by the receiver.

As a result of this problem, a shorthand method of expressing one' s moods emerged on the internet. This helps the receiver (s) to get a much better understanding of the message that the sender is conveying while also helping the sender save much time and difficulty expressing his/her self thus making it much easier. This shorthand method of expressing ones mood uses standard keyboard symbols as emotional icons (symbolic picture) thus the name emoticons. This is sometimes better known as "smileys?. The arrangement of these keyboard characters that are intended to convey an emotion, are usually viewed sideways. This means, in order for you to read some of these characters, you will have to tilt your head or rotate the emoticons 90 degree clockwise, in your head. Most emotions (smilies) will look like a face (eyes, nose, and mouth).

Interestingly, the modern version of smileys which is now popular on the internet is what we most simply call today also as emoticons. These are in a sense, smileys (emotion icons) in graphics or graphical emoticons. These serve the same purpose as text based characters (smileys) and are just graphical representation of feelings. In other words, replacing them with some colorful images, or even animations (some are also able to produce sounds). One advantage of graphical emotion icons (smileys) is that they are more easy to decipher, because of the graphic face that humans can read or interpret more readily from our daily interaction with people that we see or meet from our day to day activities. The untrained eye often finds these more easy to understand, when the sender express his/herself feelings, whether it was intended to indicate pleasure, approval, or humor in the form of an image. Interestingly it may not be a surprise to you to know that smileys (text based) can sometimes in a message confuse the receiver (reader) in terms of what mood you they are trying to convey! Thus, graphical emoticons are very widely used. Emoticons today are very popular and are used in e-mails, chatrooms and Web forum posts just to name a few. There are also special programs that have been developed that can easily be downloaded to your computer as well as others that can easily be inserted into emails and browsers. There also email services offering these fancy emoticons in emails.

Please note that smileys (emoticons) are created by internet users to save keystrokes and to add emotions to their message. Thus, these are informal internet expressions that are not considered appropriate for formal occasions. The following examples listed below are by no means a comprehensive list but should however provide you with adequate knowledge for you to start deciphering and conversing in this popular smiley language on your phone (text messaging) and the internet such as in emails, chatroom, message board post (web forums) and instant messaging. Included also are graphical emoticons which definitely don?t need any deciphering : )

---

Emoticon (Smileys)Meaning
:] or :-] or :) or :-) Smile, happy, humour, joke, laughter, friendliness, occasionally sarcasm
;-)Smile with a wink

:<})User with mustache, smiling
:-||Mad
:( or :-(Unhappy, sad, anger, or upset
:' -(Crying
:~Also crying
:-))Really happy

:/ or :\ or :-/ or :-\undicided, confused, or skeptical
:Q or :-QConfusion
:S or :-Sincoherence or loss of words
:@ or :-@shock or screaming
:O or :-Osurprise, yelling or realization of an error ("uh oh!")
>:)malicious contentment

>:(strong anger or discontent
>:Dmalicious joy
-0_o-confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
0.oconfusion or shock, signifying the user saying "WHAT!?!?"; also designating a drunken or high state
?_?confusion, shock, drunkenness or a "high" state
9_9"rolling eyes",express annoyance

:D or :-DBig grin
:-*A kiss
:-P~A lick
:-oWow! or I'm surprised
:-|Grim
:-PSticking out your tongue

:-User happens to be Popeye
:-/Perplexed
=:OFrightened (hair standing on end)
=8OBug-eyed with fright
:-}Embarassed smile
:-)<>>>>>Basic Smiley with a necktie

;-^)Tongue in cheek
%*@:-(Hung over
:-~~~Drooling
>:)Perplexed look
.)Keeping an eye out for you
8:-)Glasses on forehead

8:[Normal smiling face of a gorilla
0:-)Angel
]:-|[Robot
(:V)Duck
3:-oCow
:-]Vampire

(_8-(|)Homer Simpson
C|:-=Charlie Chaplin
=|:-)=Abe Lincoln
*<:-)Santa Claus
-:-)User sports a mohawk and admires Mr. T
(:)-)Scuba diver

:-'|User has a cold
:-{}User with heavy lipstick
:-)8User is well dressed
>:-<Mad
*#:-)Scotsman wearing his Scottish tam
%-^User is another Picasso

XDLaughing, crossed eyes
XPSticking tongue out while laughing, crossed eyes
=_=tired, with bags under eyes
^///^blushing
<3a heart; love. For hate, place a slash "/" between the two characters
==agreement. For disagreement: !=

#-)User partied all night
<:IDunce
:-|"Have an ordinary day!" Smiley
:}{:Kisses
oooo(0) (0)ooooToes
(-_-)Secret smile


Some examples of Japanese emoticons

^_^Smile

^o^;>Excuse me
^^;Cold sweat
^o^Happy
*^o^*Exciting
(^_^)/Banzai smiley
( ; _ ; ) crying

m( _ _ )m apologies/thank you

(>_<) angry

(+_+) shocked/disappointed

(@_@) ill/hangoverTo see some example of graphical emoticons click the links below. This is done in order for the site to load much faster.

Graphical Emoticons - Image A

Graphical Emoticons - Image B

For Free Graphical Emoticons click the link below:
FREE emoticons

Read The Full Article:
http://universalfacts.blogspot.com/2006/05/emoticons-and-smileys-their-functions.
html

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Betrayal

The weather has been very warm and reasonably dry these past few days in NYC. However, things have been difficult for me because I made the unpleasant discovery, once again, that I am allergic to airborne pollutants. If you are familiar with NYC air quality, you will realize that the air quality here is poor on a good day but, thanks to the influx of tree pollens, it has been worse than poor these past few days.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/grrlscientist?m=174

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Jupiter’s Close Approach

If you have clear skies this weekend, now’s a great time to get out and observe the largest member of our solar system. Jupiter reached opposition to the Sun on May 4th, and will be closest to the Earth tonight, May 6th.On May 6th, the date of closest approach, Jupiter will be 410 million miles [...]

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http://www.wolverinesden.org/2006/05/06/jupiters-close-approach/

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See if your home will escape rising sea levels!

A friend has just alerted me to one of the best uses of online mapping software yet devised -- helping you plan your future relocation once rising sea levels have inundated your home! You can use the handy pulldown menu in the upper left corner to choose the potential increase in sea level. In case you're wondering, which you ought to be, some predictions call for a 7 meter rise over the next 50 years. (For those unfamiliar with the exotic, Eurotic ways of the metric system, a "meter" is just over three feet, what we right-thinking folk call a "yard". Fascinating, eh? It's like taking a trip to Europe, it is!)

As luck would have it, my Oakland, CA domicile will escape a 7 meter rise by at least a half-mile. News this good makes me want to go burn some tires in the yard, barbecue an endangered salmon, and finally, as the sun sets behind a pretty petro-haze, drive a vintage 8-cylinder automobile to the beach and leave it idling while I frolic in the ever-rising tide.

For the rest of you closer to sea level, fret not, many a happy home has been built atop stilts. In other good news, local lagoon Lake Merritt will fulfill its destiny and finally be reunited with the sea.

Yes, now you can see Waterworld the way it should've been made -- on a global scale, and without Kevin Costner.

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http://strangetrue.blogspot.com/2006/05/see-if-your-home-will-escape-rising.html

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Saturday roundup

Just a few things that have either been sitting in my drafts box and I know I won't have a chance to get to, or stuff I saw elsewhere that deserves a mention.

Check out this excellent (and hilarious) post by Skip Evans on creationists and boobies.

I've posted previously here about our eagles here in Iowa. Phil at the Bad Astronomy Blog gives links to 2 webcams, where you can watch the nests of eagles or peregrine falcons (another favorite bird of mine). They've shut down the eagle one because the eggs didn't hatch and the parents left the nest, but there's a fluffy white falcon chick (dozing as I currently write this up on Friday, it would seem) to entertain you.

Can human papilloma viruses be transmitted via blood? Maybe.

Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's influenza branch (and an Iowa native) was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.

A commenter asked why we don't just quarantine for avian flu. As I said, it's not that simple. However, Iowa and other states are broadening their quarantine powers to allow them to do what's necessary in the event of any serious, transmissible infectious disease.

A vaccine may be able to protect from death with Marburg and Ebola, even if administered after infection.

In other infectious disease news, new research suggests a reason why many ape species are more resistant to autoimmune diseases and AIDS: a difference in expression of a protein controlling T cell activation. The work's only been done in vitro at this point and needs further confirmation, but interesting stuff.

Wallaby milk as an antibiotic source?

I admit, I watch the Fox drama House. One episode dealt with a child faith healer; turned out his "cure" had just been a herpes virus, which shrunk her tumor. Orac and Scott discuss the science.

And finally, via coturnix, an opinion piece on nurturing success in science from the chancellor at NC State.

Finally, the tornado ad. I don't have flash on the computers I use here, so I've not seen it, but here's your chance to comment about it, if you've not already spoken your mind on other science blogs. I apologize for it, 'cause it sounds pretty damn annoying.

Have a good weekend!

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/aetiology?m=167

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Grrl Scientist Gets All the Cool Gigs

Grrl Scientist got a complementary copy of the Daily Kos science e-book. She's got a review of it here. Does reality have a liberal bias? Anyway, she also got into a screening of Flock of Dodos. She doesn't have a review up, but she did post some comments here. Apparently Randy Olson is familiar with blogs about science (ie, Carl Zimmer's site), but he doesn't know about blogs written by scientists. If Olson does read ScienceBlogs, here's a message: have a screening in Pennsylvania.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/evolgen?m=87

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Flock of Dodos: Afterwards

After waiting in line for an hour and a half and being entertained by a flock of three smallish people clad in overstuffed neon orange dodo costumes, I was "number seven" of the last ten people granted admission to Flock of Dodos. But my wait was worth it because I really enjoyed this film. Flock of Dodos was a low-key humorous film, not an attack film, a la Michael Moore, and I think it made its points very well.

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Star worship

Via Pharyngula I see that my friend and sweetiepie Julia Sweeney was interviewed in the Seattle Times about her play, "Letting Go of God". I’ve seen her perform this one-woman play a couple of times now, and it is funny, poignant, and thought-provoking. Most people think of Julia as "Pat" from Saturday Night Live and [...]

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http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/05/06/star-worship/

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Roy J. Plunkett

Steve Melito writes:Roy J. Plunkett was born on June 26, 1910 in New Carlisle, Ohio, a small city in the southwestern part of the state. The son of a struggling farmer, Plunkett studied during the Great Depression at Manchester College, a small liberal arts institution in northern Indiana. As an...

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http://cr4.globalspec.com/article.pl?sid=06/05/05/1914248&from=rss

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