Emoticons

Started by Her August 6th, 2011 6:54 PM
  • 1973 views
  • 21 replies

Her

Age 29
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 4 Days Ago
:3 :/ ;-; :) XD
After using all of these emoticons successively in a row, I felt like a little part of me had died inside. The only time I ever use XD is for ironical purposes and it physically hurt to use it otherwise. But what about you? Do you use emoticons? If so, how often? Do you use them because you're lazy or as a reflection of your personality?

Oryx

CoquettishCat

Age 30
Female
Seen January 30th, 2015
Posted December 27th, 2014
13,184 posts
12.2 Years
Why would using emoticons be lazy?

I use them because online it's hard to read a tone. If I say something that's teasing as a joke without emoticons, it could very easily be taken as rude or serious, but if I add :P or XD, it's much less likely to be. If you're just chatting with me over something like irc or Skype and constantly speak with capitalization, punctuation, and lack of emoticons, I get really uncomfortable because the tone you give off is very formal and not so friendly, or only friendly in an "I'm being polite" sort of way. When I get serious I generally stop using emoticons completely.

One of the problems though is that you get so used to the emoticons of the people you normally run with and what they mean that sometimes it doesn't transfer well to other groups. I've seen people tell me that to them XD is just smiling and not laughing, and the :/ is always sarcastic or rude when I just see it as a general feel-bad smiley. That can cause misunderstandings that lead to unnecessary fights at times, because the tone of what you said isn't what you meant so you sound like a jerk or whatever.


Theme * Pair * VM * PM

Not all men...

Are all men stupid?

That's right.

Seen August 15th, 2011
Posted August 15th, 2011
152 posts
11.8 Years
:3 :/ ;-; :) XD
After using all of these emoticons successively in a row, I felt like a little part of me had died inside. The only time I ever use XD is for ironical purposes and it physically hurt to use it otherwise. But what about you? Do you use emoticons? If so, how often? Do you use them because you're lazy or as a reflection of your personality?
I only use emoticons when they're popular on the site I'm on or if I want to seem like I'm calmer than I really might be.

Zelda

⍃⍍⍄ ⍃⍍⍄

Age 7
Female
+
Seen September 15th, 2020
Posted February 3rd, 2017
4,841 posts
14.6 Years
I've always used emoticons so if I'm in a conversation with someone I know pretty well (or well enough anyway) and I don't really use any kind of smilie, they would think something was wrong. :( Emoticons just allow me to express what I'm saying in a better view too. For instance you might take "Omg you're such a noob..." differently from "Omg you're such a noob... :P", which is basically as Toujours said. So I tend to use emoticons a lot for that purpose and also because they're funnn.

I guess in a way they do give off my personality well since I'm one to always smile and laugh at many things irl, so that shows well online here too. :)

wisdom cries. paired to Cay & Exile & Sombra
Seen August 15th, 2011
Posted August 15th, 2011
152 posts
11.8 Years
I only use emoticons when they're popular on the site I'm on or if I want to seem like I'm calmer than I really might be.
Well, I'm really always calm. I'm just projecting why I think others use them in a way that doesn't offend, because I wouldn't want to offend anybody!

Cherrim

Age 34
she / her
Toronto
Seen 20 Hours Ago
Posted 20 Hours Ago
33,052 posts
20.4 Years
I never use graphical ones, but I still use text-based smileys all the time. I used to do all the anime ones (^___^) but I can't stand most of them now and stick to the boring :) or :( types. The only others I use with any amount of frequency are xD and 8D.

I've been doing my best to not use them as much on the internet but I often can't help it. Their frequency has definitely diminished (especially with twitter and having to cut out extra characters to hit 140), but not all the way... and that's almost fine with me because it helps personality come out in my posts, I suppose.


paired with professor plum.
Holy Roman Empire
Seen February 23rd, 2016
Posted February 23rd, 2016
2,551 posts
13.7 Years
I rarely use text-based emoticons, simply because I have difficulties understanding their meanings, aside from the most basic and boring ones.
Instead, I like to import Smileys from elsewhere and get annoyed at google every time because its first suggestions keep being huge images no sane person would ever actually use as a smiley in a text under most circumstances. Of course the standard size setting "Any Size" means what it says, but in this case it functions just in such an unreasonable way...

champagnepapi

exile

Male
new england
Seen September 4th, 2016
Posted June 25th, 2016
1,795 posts
12.5 Years
Emoticons are p cool! I disable the default vBulletin ones, but I do like to use them in text. A few of the ones I use are: ^o^, :'), 8(, B), :o, ;), xD, ^__^, n__n and of course, the grand daddy of them all: x).

paired to kaori & vrai

Sammi

Age 33
she/her
The States
Seen 5 Days Ago
Posted November 8th, 2021
14,085 posts
18.3 Years
I use text ones at least once a post. I should probably stop doing that. -_-; But it's habit at this point!

The ones I use are mainly :), :(, :p, :D, D:, ;_;, -_-;, ._.;, :/, ect... yeah I can use a lot of them if I feel like it.

I'll make a proper signature when Pokecommunity gets a proper slogan

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I started using them to get across that I was not always being so serious. I noticed that they seem to make a big change in how what I write is perceived and the kinds of responses I get seem a lot friendlier... but maybe that's just because they used emoticons, too. I dunno. Now they're sort of a habit for me when I'm on PC.

Aquacorde

⟡ not everything is sink or swim ⟡

Age 29
she/her/he/him
Ankh-Morpork
Seen 23 Hours Ago
Posted 3 Days Ago
12,277 posts
18.9 Years
I use text-smilies only, never images. I notice that I have a tendency to use them more often when I'm hyper or in the IRC/in a chat since at those times I'm usually not explaining myself well at all and therefore feel clarification on my tone is necessary. Otherwise I use smilies as accents to what I'm saying, but quite a bit less.
marie & casey & rosey
groc x aquacorde x juno 4ever | rp is just collaborative writing
join rp: ultra sinnoh

Pokemon Trainer Touko

春野サクラ ♥

Age 24
Female
Konoha ★
Seen June 3rd, 2012
Posted March 7th, 2012
1,712 posts
12.3 Years
I love emoticons!~ I use them all the time~ (text emoticons only tho, 'cause graphic ones can be kinda ugly lol. XD) :D My favorite ones are: :D :> :3 >u< >.< ^_^ n_n :P XD xD :< D: D:< ):< :) ;D ;3 ;w; ;o; ;~; ^~^ <3 8D |D >n< >w< >///< ^u^ owo o3o *w* -w- ._. -_- *.* ^.^ >.> >__>
⎡ Paired with Vaporeon 7 ★ Deviantart PC family

Mr Cat Dog

Frasier says it best

Age 32
Male
London, UK
Seen September 29th, 2017
Posted July 12th, 2017
11,344 posts
19.1 Years
:D and maybe o.o are the ones I'll stretch to. I used to use a lot more (like the dreaded XD and o_O), but I guess I've grown out of them, for whatever reason. Before you know it, I'll be calling everyone whippersnappers and telling people to get off my non-existent lawn.