The Smiley

Arguably one of the most powerful symbols in the modern world, the smiley. It has the remarkable ability to convert any words preceding it into a compliment, kind suggestion, or gentle reminder.

The smiley is perfect for those awkward conversations where you feel you might hurt someone, but still want to get your point across. For example:

Friend: OMG. i lopve chatting onaim!
You: I hate you :)

Such subtle statements can be slipped in at various points and will eventually have the effect of making the person less likely to contact you without them actually recalling why. The key to effectively presenting these messages is variety: mix it up with new threats and different smiley’s; a “:D” is often more effective than the traditional smiley.

So, sick of your clients? Tired of your chat-crazed friends? Use this quick tip to tell them exactly what you’re thinking with zero accountability.

8 Comments

  1. Tom Martin

    May 28, 10:57 PM

    Adding a smiley here and there can sure help avoid an otherwise damaging fight between friends. I’ve been too close to those before, and I’ve got the ”:D” to thank. :D

  2. Atul

    May 29, 10:24 AM

    Smiley faces are important for email because it’s hard to express tone in an informal note. They do seem contrived and can be overused. I try to keep it to one or two max per email. If I do use it, I like using the smiley face with a nose… :-) ... or the winking smiley with a nose… ;-)

  3. Max

    May 31, 03:18 PM

    I love smilies, and I think they are definately one of the more important tools—while on the internet. However, they are quite informal and should be left out of such things such as business conversations.

    And definately papers. Never use smilies in papers, you may have no idea how much that pisses teachers and profs off.

  4. Sayuri

    May 31, 07:49 PM

    yep, i do that all the time. “go shoot yourself :D”

  5. Eric Toledo

    May 31, 08:05 PM

    Smiley, never thought too much about it. Interesting. Speaking of smiley’s I just did a post of a documentry about Wal-Mart. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

    http://www.dospicas.com/?p=46

  6. chris

    Jun 2, 03:25 PM

    I bastardize HTML tags to infuse tone and facial/body expressions into otherwise empty AIM conversations. for instance:

    Me: {dancing} I like this song. {/dancing}
    You: {smiling}DIE! {/smiling}

    [I had to change the bracket-thingies to those thingies.]

    I use smilies sometimes, but I prefer to use ones that I have made. :U (happy ducky) and :|... (drool) are my favorites.

  7. Thame

    Jun 3, 09:21 PM

    Ah, what have I done. I’m so self-conscious of my smiley use now :D)

    Damn, there it is again. Was that a good use of a smiley? I don’t want to overuse them and sound flippant, but I don’t want to be too serious…Maybe I’ll change it to a normal smiley…

  8. 3dsl Eugen

    Nov 28, 11:44 AM

    hey, here http://snikers.9999mb.com/smiles.rar can you 70 smiles download. have fun :)

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