Since i cant seem to get links to work right, i copied and pasted this:
Emoticons are those little smiley faces we add to e-mails to convey emotional tone and content:
:-) Happy
:-( Sad
;-) Wink
>:-I Anger
You get the point. The range of expression is amazing. See this chart from Yahoo.
As a psychologist I find this phenomenon interesting. As we all know, verbal communication involves both language (the semantic content of our speech) along with paralanguage (the non-verbals such as facial expressions, tone, body language). Often, as we know, language can send one message while paralanguage can send the exact opposite message. This is the case in sarcasm.
Most people are just unaware of how much our communication is paralinguistic. That is until the e-mail came around. E-mails are rife with misunderstandings. As are blog comments. Why? When speech is stripped of its paralinguistic content it is hard to judge if the writing is being funny or serious. Are they angry? Or just kidding?
Enter the Emoticon, the paralinguistic innovation of the e-mail. In the vacuum of non-verbals, the ubiquitous :-) allows us to joke and kid and use sarcasm on the internet and in e-mails. It's a way to signal emotional tone.
When I first started blogging and commenting on blogs I swore I would never fall to the level of using Emoticons. But I've given in. As paralinguistic devices they really are helpful.
In short, the Emoticon is a little piece of human nature manifesting itself in the world the e-communications. Particularly communications between strangers. Phrased another way, the Emoticon is a little time capsule of evolutionary history, pointing to a time when language evolved to communicate with people face to face.
just in case it MIGHT work, here is the link to this site:
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2007/04/theology-and-evolutionary-psychology_21.html
signing off, fellow bloggers,
Jeanette Hayes
;-)
8D
3 comments:
the link didn't work
but this is an interesting subject about how people can engage in different envorionments of communication. I have never thought that emoticons could be seen in such a psychological aspect
Yeah I bring up a lot about how we say things over the internet and sometimes people take them the wrong way because they didn't really understand how you really meant what you said. It's funny actually, I was just talking to a friend earlier when I was sending a serious email to my cousin. Towards the end I had told my friend that I didn't know how to end it, and that I didn't want him to get the wrong message and go and kill himself or something. And she told me to add that at the end, but with an "lol" to show I was joking around about that part. So it's definitely necessary to add an emoticon or whatever to something you're not sure someone else is going to take the right way as you mean it.
I used to never use emoticons, but I find that its easier to get a point across when you can't hear or see the person you're talking to. I mean, I used to use caps lock when I was mad, but other than that, there was no way to express being happy or a joking attitude through e-mail or instant message. Emoticons make the converstaion more interactive and fun.
Post a Comment