Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Age of the Smiley

At work, I have noticed a wild proliferation of "smilies." Not just :)

but also :o)

and :-
which I almost like.

My friend, Miranda likes to throw in a wink ;-)

I just sent out a group e-mail and got back comments including
:-)
;0)
and :-p

It seems strange to me that normal adults with regular jobs would send out e-mails related to business and include a smiley. It seems so girly. It's like there are teenaged girls working here.

I guess this is what the world has come to 8-(

We're in the age of the smiley :o}

Color me unimpressed.

3 comments:

Andy Baker said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Andy Baker said...

If that's the new corporate culture, I'm scared of corporate culture. I have a good friend who likes to use < g >, which is a grin. It's like my darling sister's use of LOL, or alternately, lol. Of course there's always LMAO, when I really crack her up.

Ah, life in the new millinium.

Miranda Boers said...

In defense of the smile, it helps to let people know that something you said was meant lightly. In an age of emails and when comments can be misread or misunderstood, and come across as angry or insulting, the smile allows the sender to indicate a friendliness! I also use LOL, but initially thought it was a Dutch expression as I only first saw it in emails when I worked at a Dutch company! I still don't know what LMAO means! But as you can see, I am an exclamation mark girl! You can also use astrixs to show a facial expression, such as *smile*.
But the concept of them in the work place is strange to me - in terms of contact with your boss. Far too informal.