Smileys! :D

[Kakuna Matata]

Or smilies. Or emoticons.

Whatever you want to call them, they've been adopted by quite a few people in this age of texting and the internet as a way of clarifying the meaning behind a message, or just to add on to the overall feelings of it.

I'm curious as to how everyone feels about their usage and personal preferences and quirks regarding them.

For myself, it depends. I try to avoid constantly spamming them, but every now and then I send a VM where each sentence is followed by one.

The person I am messaging also factors into it. When I first start talking with another member on here, if they don't send replies back with smilies for awhile, then I tend to not send any back either. Not because I enjoy the conversation any less, but because I figure smilies will annoy them.

Smiley usage doesn't bother me, unless it gets to the point where five sentences or so are all followed by an "xD" or something of a similar nature. Each time it would lose a bit of its effect. Same thing goes for "lol" and other abbreviations that denote laughing in some form.

As the years have gone on more and more emotions have been made into icons or animations. It's gotten to the point where it's not even required to be strictly an emotion.

:014:
Whether it's awesome, fun and stylish or superfluous drivel, a waste of time and attempts at being overly cutesy varies from person to person. I lean more toward the former mindset.

And then there's the placement of the smiley in the sentence. Do you use it in place of punctuation? Or do you place it at the beginning of a sentence? As I mentioned earlier, I place them at the end of a sentence.

With the exception of this smiley, as it looks odd at the end of the sentence I intend to use it for. I used to use them as sentence-enders until I had a conversation with @Snoozle some odd months ago about how he took it as a person saying the letter that comprised the smiley's mouth. (Eg. "Hi " becomes "Hi Deeeeeee".) So I adopted that into my "smiley grammar" from that day on.

Also, I see smileys that are essentially the same as having different meanings. For example, "" and "" are both smileys that are blowing raspberries. However, the former comes off to me as being slightly more harsh and the latter as being more lighthearted teasing. "=P" is somewhere in the middle. With the eyes being smaller on the "" one I relate it to a sweatdropping or not-amused face. sweat: or "-_-")

So, your thoughts on smileys?
Yes, I am aware I have put far too much thought into this, no need to point it out.
And no, this does not give you the excuse to spam up this thread with smileys.

 

[Ferbgor]

I personally don't use them at all. I don't mind when other people use them, just don't excessively spam them.

 

[TheCapsFan]

I use XD too much, I can tell you that.
But, I don't really care about people using smileys too much.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I use smilies far too much. One smily can say alot of things.

 

[GatoRage]

I use them occasionally, but only in VM's or blog comments, never in posts. And I dont use those colorful, moving smilies, only something like this at the end of sentences. I never use this xD, because it annoys me.

 

[Lumi]

That's quite an interesting topic. I would say that I use emoticons often, as I think they make my messages more expressive. However, I rarely use the actual smilies that are images and I prefer the ones like "" or ":3", etc. In my opinion, it looks aesthetically better that way.

Yep. ^_^

 

[Ghost]

I very rarely use smilies. Occasionally, I'll use :-D , but even that doesn't happen very often.

 

[Enzap]

One smiley that I've noticed myself using more often is the :< smiley. I take it as meaning pretty much the same thing as the but it's more disappointed than actually sad.

I don't think I overuse any smileys, especially as much as I used to. I was a smiley n00b for far too long...

 

[AlexandraTheZoroark]

I'm a frequent smiley user. I always have to emphasize my point, usually with these smileys: :sweat:,:XD2:, , 8-3, , :-<, ^_^, and >_<.

I use them even when my point doesn't need to be emphasized :XD2:

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I like using smileys. I don't spam them, but I do use them more often than most people here. I typically don't use the image-type smileys, such as . They just seem out of place, to me. I only use them when an ordinary smiley isn't able to accurately portray my tone. So, when I do use the image-type smileys, I typically use ones like :cheers: or :headbang:.



^ I use these smileys quite a bit, because I'm always afraid that people will get my message wrong (one of the things I hate the most is being misunderstood). And also because I think my posts tend to come across as sarcastic or narcissistic-sounding (but I'm not sure if I actually do use sarcasm as much I think I do/am tempted to). So I use them quite a bit to make sure everybody understands that I'm not trying to hurt anybody. Sometimes I just use them to diffuse the mood when I'm starting to feel a bit akward. [There I go again!]

I typically use smileys after my sentences, and I rarely ever use "XD", because for me, there's too much of a stigma, a feeling that "this is what idiots who can't spell use on Facebook". So I rarely ever use it.

I'm also quite fond of this: (>O.0)> I just think it's cute.

 

[Fennel]

I use smileys because tone of voice is something that isn't present when you're chatting online. I try not to overuse them, though, otherwise it just gets annoying.

 

[Froakie]

I overuse 'xD'. Probably gets annoying, but if I don't include one my sentence looks so moody.

 

[Kakuna Matata]

Another thoughts comes to mind:

Do you prefer to use a colon or an equal sign as eyes for your smilies?

I switch between the two, as I see them having slightly different meanings.

I use them occasionally, but only in VM's or blog comments, never in posts. And I dont use those colorful, moving smilies, only something like this at the end of sentences. I never use this xD, because it annoys me.

That's quite an interesting topic. I would say that I use emoticons often, as I think they make my messages more expressive. However, I rarely use the actual smilies that are images and I prefer the ones like "" or ":3", etc. In my opinion, it looks aesthetically better that way.

Yep. ^_^

You both bring up a point I forgot to add to the original post. Thank you~

Depends on the smiley for me. Some of the ones available here I never use, and others I use somewhat frequently. I go back and forth between using images and text-based smileys, like in the case of "" and "=)".

I very rarely use smilies. Occasionally, I'll use :-D , but even that doesn't happen very often.

It's as rare as Legendaries in Gen I.

You use this one a bit too.

One smiley that I've noticed myself using more often is the :< smiley. I take it as meaning pretty much the same thing as the but it's more disappointed than actually sad.

I don't think I overuse any smileys, especially as much as I used to. I was a smiley n00b for far too long...

Same. I also see it as being more cutesy pouty.

Good thing you leveled up as the years have gone by. xD

I like using smileys. I don't spam them, but I do use them more often than most people here. I typically don't use the image-type smileys, such as . They just seem out of place, to me. I only use them when an ordinary smiley isn't able to accurately portray my tone. So, when I do use the image-type smileys, I typically use ones like :cheers: or :headbang:.



^ I use these smileys quite a bit, because I'm always afraid that people will get my message wrong (one of the things I hate the most is being misunderstood). And also because I think my posts tend to come across as sarcastic or narcissistic-sounding (but I'm not sure if I actually do use sarcasm as much I think I do/am tempted to). So I use them quite a bit to make sure everybody understands that I'm not trying to hurt anybody. Sometimes I just use them to diffuse the mood when I'm starting to feel a bit awkward. [There I go again!]

I typically use smileys after my sentences, and I rarely ever use "XD", because for me, there's too much of a stigma, a feeling that "this is what idiots who can't spell use on Facebook". So I rarely ever use it.

I'm also quite fond of this: (>O.0)> I just think it's cute.

Based on this post I would say you're like the average user in terms of smiley usage. But this is slightly biased in that the sections that I typically hang out in have a more relaxed, casual nature about them.

Smileys can be very helpful for the reasons you mentioned. A person's mood while browsing the site can affect how they interpret a post. A smiley can help clarify you were just playing around of joking.

Though when someone uses a "" or something similar I instantly take it as joking. The absence of a smiley leads me to believe that the person is being serious, especially if I don't know the person very well to know their typical posting style, personality and sense of humor.

 

[Aori]

This is a very original subject and thread, I loved the idea of discussing about smilies!
Smilies are very important for me. I tend to use them a lot. I have to admit some of it is this part of my trying to look cutesy (like saying, "Thank you :3!" instead of "Thank you". The first looks cuter HAHA). I will agree to what Lumi has said, I usually use the ones that are letters, instead of the ones that are graphics. I usually find the graphic ones to convey wrongly what I'm saying.
For example looks so much different than ! I can't put my finger on what's so different though! haha
I also use smilies to make the tone of what I'm saying lighter. I don't want to sound too serious on the internet, and not using any smilies usually makes one sound serious, at least to the eye. It's so funny how we associate this visual language of pixels turned into letters as something equal to hearing spoken conversation xD as if the internet's "O_O" was the real life's shocked face.
Finally, I have to clarify that I usually *can* understand a person's tone from the words they use and such, but smilies make it much easier. It's like you are giving the other person more instruments to de-codify your message and how you meant it. (this is the part when the fact that English isn't my main language starts to show by my dysfunctional use of arguments XD hahaha)

 

[bigv]

I never use them on forums, only in IM's and especially game chats, where there's no time to type stuff out. Even then I use them rarely, and only the text-based emotion-showing ones (O.O, -_-, o.e, etc.).

 

[Zenax]

I like smileys and I guess I use them a lot, but I try not to overuse them. Sometimes it's just impossible to convey your message efficiently if you don't use one. Although I never use the pixelated one, only the good old colon + capital letter (exception with "")/number/random symbol. It's possible to talk without using them all the time, though, and it usually removes your credibility if you overuse them. At least, that's how I see it.

Another thoughts comes to mind:

Do you prefer to use a colon or an equal sign as eyes for your smilies?

I don't think I ever used a smiley with an equal sign before. I only use the colon, it feels more natural or something.

 

[Twylis]

I onleh utilise mai own~ (9 9)

(. .) being the furmost of them.
Fur aktual smilinh purrposes, I use (n n), but compurritively, I rarely use eet laetly. Pawsibly beclaws smyles simpleh dun't bephit moaste mai statemints...

Hrm (¬ ¬)

 

[TFSpock]

I use smileys a lot in order to express "stuff", but not in every other sentence.

 

[Lumi]

Also, I tend to use the animated smilies when there's no other way I could express how I feel only with text emoticons. Example: :naughty:

 

[chimera]

I use them if I want to convey something better, or if I want to lighten up a message. I prefer not to use them too much, however. IMO, spamming smilies shows immaturity.