In the earliest days of digital chatting—and misunderstood messages—a young computer scientist became the father of the emoticon. It happened in 1982 when Scott Fahlman proposed typing :-) after something meant as a joke. “Read it sideways,” he told colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University. He also suggested using :-( for things that were not jokes. His idea of using bits of punctuation to convey meaning proved nothing to ¯\_(?))_/¯ at.
Not the first?
The emoticon concept may have had limited use in pre-digital times, but it was Fahlman’s version that caught on in university circles, spreading to the greater world.
The search for meaning
Devoid of body language or tone of voice, text can lead to misunderstandings. A smiley face may prevent that and even represent steps toward “a new kind of universal language,”…
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Reminisce (Digital) - 1 Issue, October/November 2022