Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in 1971, and the first text message was sent by Neil Papworth in 1992. Both of these happened not too long ago and already someone managed to create a whole new level of communication through text-based messaging.
That person was Dr. Scott Fahlman. A professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he wanted to distinguish jokes on the message board at his university to help people know what were jokes.
The first emoticon was created on Sept. 19, 1982, and revolutionized text-based communication since people could now translate emotion and tone into their messages. These "joke markers" were an idea that floated around the faculty at Dr. Fahlman's university, and he was the one who came up with the idea of utilizing type symbols to create "emotional icons." Dr. Fahlman even stated that within months, people were created different faces with type such as winky faces, santa clause, or even Abraham Lincoln.
There is contention over the true inventor of emoticons, though, and some claim it was invented as early as 1881 by Ambrose Bierce in his publication Puck. Others argue that the first emoticon was invented by designer Harvey Ball in 1963. The difference between these men and Dr. Fahlman is that the sideways smiley face was the product of a current trending means of communication and was also easy for anyone to duplicate.
Emoticons are not to be confused with the Japanese invention we know as emoji. Emoji are small images that we use more in recent times. Emoji were created on the advent of the first smartphone in Japan and took off with it. The emoji was the Japanese solution to the same problem and was added to the keys of the i-mode phone in order to ease communication. Eventually the United States and Europe banded together to create the Unicode Committee to develop a unified set of global emoji, and with the help of Japan, Apple, and google we now have the emoji we all recognize today. Each company can alter the icons slightly but there is now a global standard that everyone recognizes and follows to help communicate.
The debate exists that the usage of emoticons is lazy or diminishes the credibility of the sender. However, with the positive of being able to inform the reader that the message is meant to be taken as a joke rather the reader get offended is an invaluable ability. What do you think?
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