{"id":851,"date":"2008-11-24T16:40:31","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T20:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/?p=851"},"modified":"2008-11-24T16:40:31","modified_gmt":"2008-11-24T20:40:31","slug":"the-e-war-emotions-or-emoticons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/2008\/11\/24\/the-e-war-emotions-or-emoticons\/","title":{"rendered":"The e-war: emotions or emoticons."},"content":{"rendered":"

There seem to be two types of people on the net, those that use emoticons, and those that don’t.\u00a0 The sides are like those people that prefer dogs to cats, Redskins to Cowboys, shaken to stirred–they are fortified in their belief.\u00a0 The question arises, however: why?\u00a0 Why does anybody use these things?\u00a0 Or why doesn’t everybody<\/em> use them?\u00a0 What creates the divergence between those that\u00a0\ud83d\ude42 upon it and those that frown?\u00a0 Perhaps it’s all in interpretation.<\/p>\n

Both words and emoticons sent via the web must be interpreted.\u00a0 Some things are easy, like “I’m going to Burger King in a few minutes, you should come.”\u00a0 That person’s probably going to end up at Burger King in the near future, and wouldn’t mind your company.\u00a0 Then there are the elusive comments, like “Yeah…” or “Ha.”\u00a0 What does it mean if the “year” trails off like that?\u00a0 Does that means it’s awkward now?\u00a0 And the single “ha,” is that laughter, or is that pointed criticism hidden behind e-sarcasm?\u00a0 These are things that the sender has to carefully craft based on their knowledge of the recipient of the information.\u00a0 In the same way, people must be careful with using emoticons for the same reason–perhaps to a greater extent.<\/p>\n

Here’s another example:
\nMike:\u00a0 See you soon!
\nMary:\u00a0 Okay \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

That’s pretty straight-forward, and you’d be hard-pressed to mix up the implied happiness of Mary’s declaration.\u00a0 But how about this one:<\/p>\n

Mike:\u00a0 Hey Jenny
\nMike:\u00a0 Mary*
\nMary:\u00a0 Jenny? `,: |<\/p>\n

The semi-stern cocked eyebrow may be lost on some viewers, and Mike may instead think that Mary has just fallen asleep on the keyboard.\u00a0 This example just shows how you have to be careful when working with more complicated expressions.\u00a0 The same goes for sad Santa: *<||:-(><\/p>\n

In addition, different people have different styles of emoticons.\u00a0 For instance, it was only a matter of time before the simple smiley \ud83d\ude42 met it’s upright counterparts.\u00a0 Different genres, like anime and video gamers\u00a0spawned their own various faces and meanings, which then slowly became integrated into the public mixture to further confuse the rest of the populous.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

>.<
\n=.O
\nT_T
\nt.t
\no.o
\n@v@
\n-.-
\n^.^
\netc…<\/p>\n

I am of the belief that some people have confidence their conversation partner will be able to keep up with their meaning, whereas other people are more confident that the words they choose will effectively carry their intentions.\u00a0 In this way, some people see fit to toss in smiles and frowns and yells all over the place.\u00a0 Others think even the most basic use could potentially be catastrophic, and forgo the option altogether (see below).<\/p>\n

Mary:\u00a0 Ugh
\nMary:\u00a0 Today was HORRIBLE!!1
\nMike:\u00a0 Why is that?
\nMary:\u00a0 I can’t find my necklace.\u00a0 My mother gave it to me!
\nMike:\u00a0 Oh.. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42
\nMary has signed off.
\nMike:\u00a0 You left it in m–<\/p>\n

That’s as far as Mike gets in trying to tell Mary she left the necklace at his place, but she just thinks he’s insensitive because of his satisfaction that he was going to be able to make her day.\u00a0 Is the situation irreversible?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Could it lead to a big fight?\u00a0 I’ve fought over less.<\/p>\n

I’m not one to tell a person how to conduct themself on the Web;\u00a0I’ve simply noticed trends that run across it, and think they’re worth exploring.\u00a0 Emoticons probably will not be anybody’s downfall, but they may lead to some unnecessary confusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There seem to be two types of people on the net, those that use emoticons, and those that don’t.\u00a0 The sides are like those people that prefer dogs to cats, Redskins to Cowboys, shaken to stirred–they are fortified in their belief.\u00a0 The question arises, however: why?\u00a0 Why does anybody use these things?\u00a0 Or why doesn’t … Continue reading The e-war: emotions or emoticons.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}