The Original Text Smiley Turns 25!

:-) Digital Smiley Face Turns 25

The orignal text smiley was created on September 19, 1982.  You’ll recognize it as :-).   It has since morphed into all kinds of emoticons that can hardly be understood without a cheat sheet.  Here is the message board posting from Scott Fahlman that started it all:

19-Sep-82 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman             :-)

From: Scott E  Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to

mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends.  For this, use

:-(

 There are now scores of different emoticons that can be expressed with text.

:D  (Smiling)
=)  (Smiling)
;]  (Winking)
:]  (Neutral Expression)
:/  (Partial half smile)
:(  (Frowning)
:’( (Crying)
:-) (Smiley with nose)
:o  (Talking)
<:o) (party smile)
:p  (Poking his tongue out)

Related posts by der5er

• The View from the Top of the Carillon (1)
• Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19, 2007 (0)
• More from the Carillon (0)