Cyril Darkcloud Posted May 21, 2003 Report Posted May 21, 2003 As far as news goes, this is a relatively old story -- it came out last September. On the off-chance we have a few members here who haven't seen it, however, and who may have wondered about the origin of that now common element of internet communication the emoticon, here is a link to the original post by a microsoft researcher about discovering what is believed to be the first use of a smiley in online discussion: First Smiley The institution referred to in the post by the abbreviation CMU is Carnegie-Mellon University, a very fine technical school located in Pittsburgh. Curiously, the original post was discovered just a few days before its 2Oth anniversary -- I for one had not realized the smiley had been around for 20 years. The "archeology" of the internet and the style of communication that it has produced is a small but growing area of research in both computer related and humanistic fields of study.
jonathan_wolfe Posted May 21, 2003 Report Posted May 21, 2003 I'm surprised it wasn't invented a lot earlier than that. Thank god for smileys I tell you. What's also curious is the japanese assimilation of our smiley technology, forcing the whole smiley landscape to change form, become a vertical concept and to become about 100 times cuter. I mean damn... what looks nicer? or :-) Watch the bulletin board make picture smileys out of this whole thing
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