Brave New World

“A smiley was first developed in the year of 1982 by Scott Fahlman. This occurred at the Carnegie Mellon University when this person used a simple form of a smiley like :-) on the bulletin board of computer science….they [emoticons] are probably the easiest way to express your feelings without spending a single precious word from the mouth….”

-Unknown Source

Now, I embrace technology as much as the next person, but there are certain aspects that I won’t cuddle up to. Along with shorthand texting, I have a real beef about Emoticons. Sure, I get their efficiency and their ‘cleanliness’ but I can’t love them. It’s not them. It’s me. 

My dating life had not so much reached a crossroads, but had taken a wrong turn someway back and was now lost on a country by-road, with grass growing down the middle. So, I took two steps into the underworld of online dating, I.M. and Emoticons. Here is an excerpt from an actual conversation I had online:

Me: So tell me in plain English….what do I do now?

He: ok. Well go to ****, log in, and then you will notice a chat box in the left hand column. You’re supposed to see my contact there

Me: Yes, I see your contact and the chat icon but nothing happened

He: you should be receiving instant messages…..

Me: Where? Where are these messages?

He: there is a popup window appearing on the bottom right corner of the browser otherwise we can go on chatting as usual :-)

Me: No, I need to be able to do this. I found your messages but I can’t reply. There is no popup on the right hand corner. Just leave it with me, I will figure it out. What’s with :-)??

He: I was sending you a smile  ;-))

Online dating didn’t suit me….I could argue, its an age thing  with T-internet but IT and ITs Emoticons have been in existence for some thirty years. Well, things do move slower in Ireland.

1984 - Long distance communication of the past!

I have managed to re-create my own knitter savvy emoticon jargon:

:) x            Knitting happily

:[ x            Oh…something has happened!

:(  (|          Ooops….I sat on my needle

)(               Needles, overused & abused

}:|             mmm….something’s not right

§§§           Knots in the yarn!

-------          Erm….kind of got the knots out

}:(              Oh Balls!