Plan for Progress  

Emoticons are almost always text-based faces and objects that help give the reader a feel of the writer’s feelings behind the text. For example, the classic =) face demonstrates that the writer is excited about a fact or that his message is in good humor. The =P face is employed to show frustration or to say “Whatever…” Emoticons can as well be used to formulate real-world objects. For example, a @–>–>— constitutes a long-stemmed rose, used to show affection.

Emoticons can at the same time be used to symbolize people or objects applyingmerely text characters. For example, |_P could be a cup of coffee, while (_8^ (1) might be used to represent Homer Simpson. Because it is often hard to communicate feelings when communicating by text, emoticons help convey your actual feelings. However, when you use unique or uncommon emoticons, you run the risk of the other person not understanding the emoticon and therefore adding more chaos to the message. For this cause, it is usually better to adhere to commonly used emoticons.

An emoticon list allows users to search for specific emoticons by typing in a key word or by browsing through a list of emoticons. The emoticon list varies as different symbols may represent similar things. The variation comes from the diverse applications that use emoticons as well as the creative keyboard shortcuts that people conceive to convey expressions. Wikipedia provides a list of notable and customarily used emoticons or textual portrayals of a writer’s mood or facial expression in the form of icons. The list divulges two types, the Western and the Eastern. The Western use of emoticons is considerably different than the Eastern use, and Internet forums, such as 2channel, show expressions in their own ways. In current times, graphic representations, both static and animated, have acquired the place of long-established emoticons.

The emoticons included in the Sharpened Emoticons list go from highly popular to rather uncommon. Therefore, some will be recognized by your instant messaging program, while others will not. Sharpened.net offers different lists distinct to instant messaging applications. These are composed of AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ Instant Messenger. For example the keyboard shortcut for Angel in AOL O is different from the one used in Windows (a).