Are Smilies Immature?

Hades · 16 May 2008 at 00:18

Tefal said:
you have 2 http://

Thankyou

Tefal · 16 May 2008 at 02:41

Hades said:
Thankyou

Welcome

Barrybear · 16 May 2008 at 02:55

Bit much dont you think Tefal?

dbmzk1 · 16 May 2008 at 03:32

It all depends on who you are talking to and how you are saying it. If you are having a serious conversation then there is little need for them as your written words will offer all required. However if you are just messing about and making some random comment in GD then they can be useful.

Andelusion · 16 May 2008 at 04:05

I use them all the time, it's all too easy to give someone the wrong impression if you're not careful.

Tefal · 16 May 2008 at 04:05

aww where my massive smiley go

Tom0 · 16 May 2008 at 06:03

gumbald said:
They're needed sometimes to convey tone. Else there'd be more arguments.

This is the only reason I use them.

Mr^B · 16 May 2008 at 06:21

Skeeter said:
Smileys WERE cool

Then there came all the bloody annoying stupid ones all over everwhere

Smiley became annoying

Clever people use words to convey feelings, leaving stupid smileys and emoticons to 12 year olds who think we wanna see animated K's and LOL's all over the bloody place!

Clever people would have to write reams and reams of text in order to convey an expression that could be summed up by the use of a smiley.

Or perhaps you think that overly verbose text is required all the time, and you're happy reading this irrelevant frippery rather than simply seeing a small emoticon which serves the same purpose but far more elegantly?

You've already used an emoticon, the "!" at the end denotes shouting/emphasis, or perhaps you didn't realise what this symbol means, or perhaps it was meant sarcastically.

So how would a writer convey sarcasm in words? They might do something like this :

"Oh, thank you, I've always wanted a huge dent in the side of my car," he said with an exasperated tone, rolling his eyes to the sky.

Whereas here you can do this:

Oh, thank you, I've always wanted a huge dent in the side of my car :rolleyes:

I'd rather see the back of "**" "lol" "wtf" "pwn",etc - rather than simple shorthand emotion conveyance devices.

Kell_ee001 · 16 May 2008 at 08:00

I <3 my smilies

Duke · 16 May 2008 at 08:16

I probably use them a bit too much

platypus · 16 May 2008 at 08:57

They have an occasional use.

Van Hellseek · 16 May 2008 at 09:14

malccy · 17 May 2008 at 08:00

seek said:

Think answers original question.

Will_3rd · 17 May 2008 at 08:04

I feel they have become overused in this post-industrial society we live in

Pookie Bear · 17 May 2008 at 08:12

Margaret · 17 May 2008 at 08:17

Mohinder said:
I hate the winky one. I want to punch its face in.

...

Frapple · 17 May 2008 at 08:45

Just disable em in the MSN options, and you'll stop using them. Worked for me.

Gotta a

friend who

uses

after every

sentence

Mansize_tissue · 17 May 2008 at 10:52

Mohinder said:
I hate the winky

Even your own?

4T5 · 17 May 2008 at 11:03

I think they are a nice brief way of getting your intended tone across.

I really hate that

I really hate that :mad:

I really hate that

It avoids confusion, arguments & causing offence :cool:

(eg

)

furnace · 17 May 2008 at 11:10

^^ What malc said. They're a great way of showing exactly how you're saying something.

It's not like a book where we can explain the characters emotion or whatever, tbh I think it's silly for anyone to expect people on forums to just use words to show the tone of their post - smileys are surely the perfect way to do it. So what if they're casual and not in the dictionary - we all understand them, and this is a forum, so why does it matter?

Those stupid "custom emoticon" things on MSN that litter conversation windows are stupid though. I don't need "lol" turned into some flashing red "LOL" text, thanks...