The first symbol you would probably remember using on the internet was the vertical smile. It looked strange but soon you became used to it and now you cannot go a day without using your smiley face symbols somewhere in a chat room or in your email or on a social network site. After all, it shows that you are happy, that you were not offended, or that you did not mean harm.

Today there are programs that transform the old colon and bracket into a round face that can show human emotion. It is said that a picture can tell a story and this is true in the virtual world. If we as humans cannot express our emotions, then what we write becomes just useless words on a screen. That is why it is important to use a symbol where possible.

Psychologists have discovered that ninety percent of human communication is non-verbal. Our body language, tone and gestures thus make up how we are perceived by someone else. On the internet however, we cannot see someone’s body and cannot get at the tone unless he or she uses strong language. Hence the smiley was born to aid us communicate better.

We can use all sorts of emotion faces like showing sarcasm, jokes, anger, sadness, playfulness and even bashfulness. With digital communication evolving at the speed of light, these characters have even grown legs and arms.

You will also find some that make a fashion statement with their hats and colorful clothing. They have also become animated to such an extent that you can make them jump with joy, or rub their eyes or sing a song.

As mentioned, most email providers have a program that uses smileys as a feature. You can also find them in instant messenger chat applications, on blog websites and some forums as well. They can become a nuisance for some people so they simple disable them. However, a lot of time and effort went into creating them, so give those cute smiley face symbols a chance at living, even if it is only in a virtual world.