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Smiley Faces in the news

From "The Economist"
p 104, v 6 # 12, Oct 1990

C = }>;{))

Last month this newspaper described some of the purported hazards of
working with computers -- electro-magnetic radiation, strained limbs,
strained eyes. We neglected to mention crooked heads. That is what you
get from trying to read the expressions of a new hieroglyphic language
that computer addicts have invented to enliven messages.

Like prehistoric cave dwellers, the devotees of electronic
bulletin-boards and "e-mail" have struggled to find a new way to
express themselves. Wall painting would not work. Words, it seems, are
not enough. Inarticulate sounds cannot be displayed on screens.  To
make their messages feel more like personal contact, they have hit on
using the punctuation marks on an ordinaty keyboard in order to pull
faces at each other. To read these signs, you have to put your head on
your left shoulder.

The basic unit is:
				 :-)

the "smiley", a standard smiling face. In context, this can mean "I'm
happy to hear from you", or other pleasantries.  The smiley can also
wink:
				 :-)
or frown:
				 :-(

among other things. The language can express many things about the
user's appearance:

		8-)   :-{)   8:-)   :-)-8   :-Q   @:-)

These signs mean, respectively, that the user wears sunglasses, has a
moustache, is a little girl, is a big girl, smokes, wears a turban.

The smiley can also indicate some subtleties of mood and response:

		     :-D   :-/   :-e   :-7   :-X

These mean that he is laughing, is sceptical, is disappointed, is wry,
is keeping his lips sealed.

Many of the signs (perhaps the majority in use on America's biggest
computer networks) are simply absurd fun, verging on the
unintelligible:

		       :-F   *:o)   +-:-)   @=

The user is a buck-toothed vampire with one tooth missing, is a clown,
holds religious office, is pro-nuclear. The hieroglyph of our title
means that the user is a drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an
updraft, a moustache and a double chin.  Now you know what electronic
mail is used for.