emoticons

Emoticons are textual representations of human facial expressions used to convey emotion in typed communication. They are created from ASCII characters or extended punctuation to suggest a facial expression without using images. The term emoticon combines emotion and icon, and it is often used to distinguish simple ASCII forms from more elaborate Japanese-style kaomoji, which use a wider range of characters.

The use of emoticons in digital discourse began in early online communities. In 1982, Scott Fahlman proposed the simple :-) and :-( as markers to distinguish jokes from serious posts on a campus message board, a gesture that popularized emoticons as a lightweight means of indicating tone. Over time ASCII emoticons became common in emails, forums, and chat services, while kaomoji gained popularity in Japanese forums and messaging, expanding the repertoire beyond Western punctuation.

Common forms include ASCII emoticons such as :-), :(, ;-), :D, and :P, which typically appear horizontally and rely on punctuation to form eyes, a mouth, and sometimes a nose. Kaomoji use a broader character set, examples such as (＾▽＾), (╯°□°）╯, or (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) convey a wider range of expressions and can be oriented in multiple directions. Emoticons are used to convey tone, humor, sympathy, sarcasm, or emphasis and remain popular in plain-text communication where images or emoji are not available or desirable.

While emojis have largely supplanted many emoticons in casual use, emoticons persist as a lightweight, platform-independent means of signaling emotion in text, especially in environments with limited support for graphics or where quick, low-bandwidth input is preferred.