I do not go a single day without sending an emoticon or receiving one. Not a single day. I had never really stopped to give these emoticons any deeper thought until a fellow student presented on the invention of emoticons today in class.
It was my birthday on Saturday and I began thinking about how many people wished me a Happy Birthday. I realized that I only got two phone calls- from my parents and from my sister. Not even my own brother called me on the phone. Instead, I got a text with emoticons. Is there really any true meaning in that? In sending someone a red heart emoticon rather than called them and telling them you love them in your own voice with your own words? My aunts, uncles, and cousins all texted me too and every one of those texts had emoticons. It is as though these colorful and cute icons suffice as showing our feelings to those we care about, even on the most important days of their lives.
Has this invention helped us to communicate our emotions more or has it really just made us emotionless? I can't even count the amount of times I sent back a laughing emoticon to a text while having a completely blank face, often times not even a smirk across my face. What does that say about me? About us? Are we all just liars? It is hard to feel like we are living in the age of ultimate communication when I received over thirty Happy Birthday wishes, but only two of those came with an actual voice. New emoticons come out all the time, and those are just new ways for us to "express" ourselves over text with less actual words and thought process of our own, but ultimately with less feeling.
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