SMILIES pro versus con

[savagegarden768]

i think smilies are simply overused.

[Flint]

hmmmmmm "overused" huh? That's interesting because it seems to imply that you feel that there is an appropriate level of usage or that in certain situations usage would be more appropriate. When, how often, or under what circumstances are you "okay" with smilie usage? (or, was you post just a joke, beacuse you used a smilie in it?)

[Torrere]

I think that smilies are the first part of the new universal language. I happened upon this thread in a Bosnian forum in Sarajevo, and found many of the same overused smilies that we use on the Cellar.

[JayMcGee]

how does one just happen upon a foreign language forum in a bombed-out city?

You're just fighting Toffler.

[Torrere]

The thread contains pictures of a hill that I heard about on the Daily Show. Some archaeologists are claiming that it is actually a gigantic pyramid, based on things like: it has four flat sides, with sharpish edges, in North-South-East-West orientation, satellite imaging, and they found a tunnel leading inside.

Jon Stewart was making fun of their inability to speak in layman's terms. Probably not fair if they are Bosnian archaelogists and never learned the layman's terms at all.

[Riddil]

The problem isn't smilies under or over-use. Or using full-quotes. Or the use of text formatting. The real point of the discussion should be regarding how effective is our textual communication. In internet discussions you're not only crippled by the well known fact that text doesn't convey emotion (one of the reasons smilies propogate), but it's also because it's one-way communication and you can't get feedback as you express your point. Which leads us to a lesser known problem...

People like to talk... they don't like to write. Most people will talk all day as long as you give them space to express their view. But when typing people want to write as SHORT a post as possible. But brevity sacrifices completeness-of-message.

And then you have to compound that with the prloblem that if *do* write long posts most people will just skip your message entirely, or only read half of it. So you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Since you're screwed anyhow, go ahead and use smilies. At least you'll have pretty pictures to look at.

*shrug*

[xoxoxoBruce]

Uh Riddil, could you sum that up for us?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Flint

Pro: SMILIES could be an indicator of these non-verbal communication elements, IE “I was only joking” or “Are you crazy?” etc.

Con: SMILIES could be an indicator that people have lost the ability to communicate meanings strictly through the use of the English language.

Given that we have the ability to format text in order to emphasize words approximately the way they would be spoken, I favor the Con position, that is, people would be better served by the use of proper English sentences than by pre-packaged imitations of human emotion. Do poets not express emotion through words?

I say it's all about the context. Indicators of tone like smilies function rather as furagana in Japanese comic books -- anything from an indicator of the desired pronunciation of a term written in kanji to something like a footnote, all crammed into the space between lines of text. It can carry parenthetical comments or even convey the punchline to a joke, though Japanese humor tends more to sustained absurdity than to punchlines.

Cold print alone can lead one to some very negative interpretations about your interlocutor, especially in conversational fora like chatrooms, where tone indicators are really needed, especially in a roomful of smartalecks. Now some people deserve every bit of opprobrium you can heap on them, but a great many do not, and it's harder to be sure of this from text alone.

BBS's have a manner of expression that is more like formal composition, in which one may eschew the shorthand of smilies for a more elaborated and precise, less stereotyped mode of expression. Font and color changes are less like composing essays than like composing text for posters. They are effective -- for posters. They don't get used as much because they're more involved and thus less understood by the not-so-savvy users, who are in any case concentrating more on composing the sentences than coloring them.

[dar512]

I like these smileys. They're tasty (and Crohn's proof).

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

~snip

You're also assuming that people will pick up the cues from spoken words. It doesn't always happen. Some people can't figure out what's going on if you hit them over the head with a 2x4, much less a smilie.

I think I am the perfect example of why emoticons should be used. I obviously don't have enough aject...in my .....ive.