Smiley's People

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I wrote a comment on a blog, adding a slightly serious angle to a light hearted post. When I read it again I had a doubt that it sounded too critical. Perhaps a bit harsh when I did not intend to be harsh? I quickly added a smiley at the end of the comment. It now looked ok. It actually sounded ok. I read it once again, and felt it said exactly what I wanted to say in the exact tone I intended. Satisfied, I hit the button 'publish'.

Then I wondered. What would I have done before the advent of Smileys? How would I have expressed this little bit of jocularity when writing something just a little serious? Have the Smileys added an extra dimension to our language and made it richer, or has our ability with words deteriorated so much that we need facial expressions as props to complete what we started out to say?

Here is something about the original Smiley's People