[ih] emoticons

[Dave CROCKER]

Brian Dear wrote:
> • 1982: The first emoticon.
> The real history is that emoticons were far richer and more graphically 
> complex BEFORE 1982.  


Could be interesting to try to amass anecdotes about early efforts in this area.

Around 1973 I was using a Tenex system -- probably ISI's -- for an IM chat with 
my brother (I was on the West Coast and he as still at Arpa in DC) and whatever 
it was that he typed, I decided to feign being extremely upset about it.  I 
remember being really amused at my cleverness and had a huge grin as I typed my 
supposed how upset I was, to him.

He immediately typed back massive apologies and regret, and it dawned on me that 
he couldn't see my smile.

He and I then chatted about communication of affect over a typing channel and 
came up with some symbols, like -U- for a smile and -M- for a smirk (or perhaps 
that was a frown.)

I suspect there are many equivalent stories.

d/

-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net