Just a quick thought on how computers and internet have changed perception. I've noticed now that whenever I see someone close a sentence inside Parentheses, it looks like a smiling one-eyed man. (Like this.) I'm not sure why the one-eyed man is smiling. Is it because he's the king?
In my early days on the Internet (and electronic communications, in general) I always favored the nerdier shorthand ([g] = grin j/k = just kidding [w] = wink and etc.) <-(there he is again) Sort of like proto-hypertext for the emotional space. (To tip you off on how old I am, much of this was pre-Internet in the late 80's when email was FIDOmail and BBS's were the primary communication medium. I didn't get on the web until 93-94.) <-!
Some of this has been carried over among the ubiquitous Internet TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms), but emoticons have been the emotional currency of choice. So I've become an emoticon user, in order to communicate effectively.
I heard a segment on Morning Edition today about a new book (an old book in Britain, but just coming over here) entirely about the proper use of punctuation. It was actually a #1 seller in the UK. The author talked about the fact that most people have "two modes" of writing, one for normal professional writing and one for email. In email mode punctuation, grammar, capitalization, and most other common rules go out the window. It is her theory that this is precisely the reason emoticons are so prevalent, because people aren't using all the tools they have to express themselves.
I think its a crock, really, but it is an interesting theory. I rarely discard punctuation and etc. in emails but still use emoticons, mostly because email is more analogous to conversation than it is to writing a letter. At least it is in the way that most people I know use it.
Note:
Feature on Morning Edition about Lynne Truss' book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"
(title comes from a panda joke some of you bad joke connoisseurs might recognize)
Japanese Emoticons (Look a bit like anime actually)
A panda walks into a resturant and is seated. He orders an expensive appetizer, the finest entree, and two desserts. He consumes them all as well as two bottles of 20 year old wine. When the waiter brings him the bill the panda pulls a gun out (from... somewhere) and blows his waiter away. As the panda's headed for the door, the owner races up to him saying, "Hey! Why did you do that!?" The panda looks at him and says, "I'm a panda, look it up." And he walks out. The owner goes to his office, finds his dictionary, looks under "panda", and reads the following: "panda: large endangered mammel native to the bamboo forests of Northern and Central China. Eats shoots and leaves."
(One of my ALL TIME favorites. I feel violated that it's been used for someone's crummy book.)
I disagree, to me it is the ultimate expression of the "Zen Joke" concept, to name a book after a punchline, with no reference to the joke itself. Brilliant.
:Some efficiency experts were trying to improve efficiency of waitstaff in resteraunts, and had two ideas.
:"I usually just use the spoon."
ha ha ha ha he he he he
Why do the Japanese have an emoticon for 'cold sweat'?