Blogg Two: Facial Behavior - Emoticons

As I was thinking about a topic for this week’s blogg, I received a text message. It was from one of the funniest people I know, and it looked like this:

Hey grl hope u r havin a gr8 day! :o)

My reaction? Genuine laughter, followed by a genuine “Eww that’s disgusting.” You see, I have a very good friend with whom I have a kind of ‘text lingo and emoticons’ competition, making fun of people who actually do communicate in such a ridiculous way. Basically we see who can compose the ‘nastiest’ message, in regard to abbreviations and emoticons. In between our ‘real’ text conversations we have these battles, and they often get out of control. We’ve decided text lingo is a slippery slope, and so we proceed with caution, usually calling it off with a “save meeeee” when it gets too out of control. These are some of the most hilarious conversations, if you’ll allow me to call them such, that I have ever had. Anyway, as I read this message, it hit me. Emoticons. Or as Emily and I lyke 2 call them, ‘emoticonzzz.’ These little characters – made of little keyboard characters – are supposed to be representations of our facial expressions, understood through written or typed communication.

Upon some research (yes, I unashamedly google-ed and wikipedia-ed ‘emoticons’) and deep ponderings, I have drawn a few conclusions and raised a few questions in this now highly interesting yet unexplored field of ‘nonverbal communication.’

First, how did we come to create these emoticons? How accurately do they actually represent our real-life facial expressions? Let’s take a look. I tested all of them, making faces to myself alone in my room as I blogg, so you should a) trust me and b) make fun of me.

Starting with the simple :-) and :-( , these emoticons were first used with the specific suggestion that they be used to express emotion by Scott Fahlman in 1982. Within months these character sequences had spread to the ARPANET (the early internet) and Usenet, and as we know today, served as the first spark of the emoticon wildfire that is devastating our population. ‘Reading’ them sideways, left to right, you will perceive a smiling face and a frowning face, representing happiness and sadness, respectively.

But let’s go deeper to capture the truly appreciated creativity in other popular emoticons, and let’s discover how they really can depict real human expressions.

Take this one =0 It represents ‘surprise’. Notice how the eyes are depicted as taller than the typical : as if opened wider, which we know to be a real-life indicator of surprise (with upward movement of the eyebrows). Also, the mouth is open, almost screaming surprise.

Or how about this one } : < It represents ‘anger’. We can tell when our friends are angry because their forehead furrows, like the symbol represents. And indeed, sometimes their mouths are pointed downward, or even pursed, as the sign suggests.

And finally, and we’ll take this one a little further, XD It represents extreme happiness. The eyes are squinted and the mouth is large, as if the whole face is engaged in hysterical laughter. We learned in class how to determine if a smile is genuine or fake. In a genuine smile, the corners of the mouth slant upward and the corners of the eyes slant downward, almost meeting. And, in this emoticon, the tips of the X and the D almost meet. So I’d say this is a very accurate portrayal of the very genuinely happy person.

Here are more for you to analyze on your own time, if you so wish.

:-D laughing ; ) winking/joking

: P silly :- / uneasy

:`( crying :-[ pouting

:-| bored | - I asleep

In the cases above, I have concluded that emoticons do actually look like our real-life facial expressions…but the question lingers – does the emoticon’s accuracy depend on our sincerity of emotion? Is there an emoticon for masking, or for neutralization, intensification, or deintensification? How would it look? I am open to answers or suggestions.

I would like to leave you with one of my favorite commercials. It has very little to do with emoticons, but very much to do with facial expressions. Well, kind of. I challenge you to use what we learned in class about genuine vs. fake smiles. I am pretty sure the airplane is genuine, but I don’t know about the headphones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m56F4EKN9hg