Overuse of smilies
Created | Updated Apr 6, 2003
This is a common ailment affecting about half of the current internet going population. Currently there is no known cure, and no one seems to be working on one.
The smilie was invented in order to express important emotions in text, that would otherwise not be picked up upon. Such an example are playful insults or sarcasm, which could be seen as real insults if not followed by a friendly happy face ( :-)):
"You know, I really hate you."
"You know, I really hate you :-)."
Thus the reader takes the intended meaning.
It could also be more useful to use an unhappy face ( :-() instead of writing: "I am unhappy".
The condition 'Overuse of smilies' originated when some people decided smilie faces were so hilarious, cool and jazzy, that they would include them in everything they typed on the internet. This leads to garbled messages with so many emotions being depicted at once, which would surely be impossible in real speech, that the reader gets confused.
There are cyber dens of iniquity, or forums, which encourage such behavior by supplying rediculous amounts of different smilie icons for a simple free registration, thus furthuring the sufferers' addiction.
Unfortunately, no one seems to identify that this is a dangerous addiction, especially not the government (who take little to no responsibility over the internet), and the results can be devestating. The educated among us realise that including excessive smilie numbers in your text, instantly makes the writer seem much younger and foolish than perhaps they are, thus degrading their public image.
This condition can lead to other similar image degrading pasttimes, such as 'Over abbreviation' or 'l337 $p33|<'.
I doubt that through any amount of protest or demonstration smilies will be banned, so shows the corruption of our society.
I thus encourage the responsible to be smart and be safe: keep smilies to a minimum.
The smilie was invented in order to express important emotions in text, that would otherwise not be picked up upon. Such an example are playful insults or sarcasm, which could be seen as real insults if not followed by a friendly happy face ( :-)):
"You know, I really hate you."
"You know, I really hate you :-)."
Thus the reader takes the intended meaning.
It could also be more useful to use an unhappy face ( :-() instead of writing: "I am unhappy".
The condition 'Overuse of smilies' originated when some people decided smilie faces were so hilarious, cool and jazzy, that they would include them in everything they typed on the internet. This leads to garbled messages with so many emotions being depicted at once, which would surely be impossible in real speech, that the reader gets confused.
There are cyber dens of iniquity, or forums, which encourage such behavior by supplying rediculous amounts of different smilie icons for a simple free registration, thus furthuring the sufferers' addiction.
Unfortunately, no one seems to identify that this is a dangerous addiction, especially not the government (who take little to no responsibility over the internet), and the results can be devestating. The educated among us realise that including excessive smilie numbers in your text, instantly makes the writer seem much younger and foolish than perhaps they are, thus degrading their public image.
This condition can lead to other similar image degrading pasttimes, such as 'Over abbreviation' or 'l337 $p33|<'.
I doubt that through any amount of protest or demonstration smilies will be banned, so shows the corruption of our society.
I thus encourage the responsible to be smart and be safe: keep smilies to a minimum.
