walk a-musing

Thursday, June 01, 2006

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

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13 Comments:

  • At 3:04 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    :) :) :).......

     
  • At 4:16 AM, Blogger Shruthi said…

    :)) -- That's the best way I can appreciate the post ;)

    Incidentally, a few weeks back, a friend of mine dug out an old email I had sent to her 5 years back, and she sent it back to me, laughing about it. It was interesting to read my own words. I told S, "look, my style of writing has changed!" He said, "Naah, your style is the same, the only thing is that there are no Smileys."
    I looked, and sure enough, not a single smiley! Nowadays I cannot even imagine writing one casual email without a smiley in it! I observed that I had put in exclamatory marks, where I would now put in "Smiling or laughing" smileys. Actually that mail was a very happy, teasing mail. And I think it put the message across perfectly without a single smiley. But when I imagined writing the mail with smileys, I realized that it would just get better :D
    I am all for smileys ;)

     
  • At 7:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Interesting thought! Never really thought about it myself!

     
  • At 8:59 AM, Blogger Enigma said…

    hmmm :)

     
  • At 10:50 AM, Blogger starry said…

    I dont know what we did before smileys came along. It sure lightens up a post or a coment.

     
  • At 12:58 AM, Blogger Anil Jagalur said…

    Very good blog.


    One way (not necessarily the correct one, of course) of looking at it is to think of smileys as that precautionary drop of oil that lubricates the engine of social interaction.


    Another aspect to this is that in the 'modern' world everyone is pressed for time and that does not give them time to really choose their words. So a smiley comes in handy to state informally "no offence meant". (Remember? Mark Twain once said "Sorry for this long mail as I did not have the time to write a short
    one!" How true.)


    Someone just now told me of a piece of conversation. How can you drink RealTM juice? It is yuck!
    What a yucky short hand! A smiley is a thousand times better. :--)

    An aside: My smiley has two dashes insteead of the normal one or none. I do have long nose!

     
  • At 7:05 AM, Blogger Anu said…

    bru, rajani, enigma, starry nights, :))

    Shruthi, :) So you feel Smileys have only added a new dimension to our communication and made it better? Alright, that feels good:)

    Anil, A smile doesnt cost anything but helps make friends (Is that Dale Carnegie?) And now we have smiles on paper too! hmm....
    hahha about that quotation from Mark Twain. Really good!
    Your signature Smiley heh? hahha cool!

     
  • At 10:31 PM, Blogger Raj said…

    Anu, I dropped by after seeing your comment on one of my posts. I must say that you have a lovely blog and have posted some great photos too.

    About the smileys, I am not sure. I had an English Professor who used to frown upon even exclamation marks. It's like laughing at your own joke, he used to say.

     
  • At 9:17 AM, Blogger Bhargav said…

    A smile is worth a thousand words. :)
    What more can I say?

     
  • At 2:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    :D

     
  • At 10:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    lz:):)

    Too lazy to write further. :)

     
  • At 4:34 PM, Blogger starry said…

    Anu you have been tagged, check my blog for info.

     
  • At 1:45 PM, Blogger Anu said…

    raj, Thankyou very much. I had read your 'Sudoka and bata tata' post long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Shruthi reccommended your blog to me recently and since then I have been visiting. Needless to say, I enjoy it.
    That is a totally new thought about exlamation marks(!) hm.... we use a lot of them too, don't we?
    We take things for granted till someone points out something like this.

    bhargav Indeed! Smileys everyone!

    Chandni, confused, :))

    Starry nights, You want the whole world to know I am weird?? please give me a little time. I will get to it.:)

     

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