# The first smilie: A Moment in History for Geeks. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299 "2002-09-13T15:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/1 "2002-09-13T15:27:37Z")
September 1982 is when Chief Scott’s life started to go [downhill](http://research.microsoft.com/~mbj/Smiley/Smiley.html). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/2 "2002-09-13T15:41:35Z")
If only Mark Twain had been around at that time. Then he could have used smilies in his books, since there’s no way for the written word to evoke humor or sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/3 "2002-09-13T16:30:40Z")
Hey! Yet another thing in computer history for which Carnegie Mellon gets credit! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/4 "2002-09-13T16:32:38Z")
I just found mention of this linked through geekstreet.ca, but I figured that the SDMB would already have a thread on it. And I was right! 🙂 Wonder how long it’ll take to get merged into the Google-archive… ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/5 "2002-09-15T03:13:20Z")
Oh God, That was the beginning of the end. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/6 "2002-09-15T15:13:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > \*\*If only Mark Twain had been around at that time. Then he could have used smilies in his books, since there’s no way for the written word to evoke humor or sarcasm. \*\* I’m not sure I understand you. Mark Twain died in 1910 at the age of 75. If he lived to 1982 he’d be 147 years old and wouldn’t have been able to write, let alone punch keys on a computer. Personally I think if Twain was half the writer everyone claims him to be, he’d have created smilies himself. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/7 "2002-09-15T20:37:49Z")
Wow, it sure caught on fast. Within a dozen posts it appeared in every other one. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/8 "2002-09-15T20:47:42Z")
**Enderw24** : I believe that **Legomancer** ’s point was that smilies are used to indicate humour or sarcasm in writing because it’s supposedly not possible to do this effectively without. Mark Twain was extremely good at using humour and sarcasm in his writing, shockingly all without the use of smilies. However, I don’t really think that’s accurate. The reason smilies caught on is that message boards and IM services aren’t like conventional publications - They’re like conversations which have been written down (obviously this isn’t entirely true, but it’s a good rule of thumb). In conversations you do rely on tone of voice a lot, which is harder to convey in writing (not impossible, just harder). This doesn’t mean that overuse of smilies is not a cardinal sin. It is, and should be punishable by death. Must… resist… (oh fine, very well; you win). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/9 "2002-09-15T21:06:17Z")
> [@](#): > > _Thus Spake Enderw24_ > Personally I think if Twain was half the writer everyone claims him to be, he’d have created smilies himself. From this, we can determine that every figure in the entire history of literature up to 1982 is overrated. There was no good writing until the smiley was invented. Well, it’s an interesting idea, but I’m going to have to disagree with it. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/10 "2002-09-15T23:54:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Drastic \* > \*\* > From this, we can determine that every figure in the entire history of literature up to 1982 is overrated. There was no good writing until the smiley was invented. > > Well, it’s an interesting idea, but I’m going to have to disagree with it. \*\* No no no. See you also forgot afterwards. There’s been no good literature since 1982 either. Why? They knew that smilies existed at yet failed to use them. It’s truly the worst crime of literature since Romeo & Juliet. But let’s go back to Twain. Take a quote of his like “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” That can be interpretted too many ways for it to be considered effectively written. If he had done it something like “do0D!!! lik OMFG congres = suxx0R!!! LOL!!11!11!!!” it really would have expressed how he felt about the subject. But he didn’t. He didn’t create smilies. He didn’t create l33t. How special of a writer could he possibly have been? My vote: not very special at all. In fact, I’m willing to hypothesize that ANY person who doesn’t use a smilie in their writings truly can’t convey his message to its intended audience. ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/11 "2002-09-16T00:05:59Z")
See, I know here that **Enderw24** is being completely serious, because if he had intended his posts to be sarcastic, he surely would have used smilies. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/12 "2002-09-16T01:08:42Z")
> [@](#): > > But he didn’t. Editors’ fault. You should take a look at some of the manuscripts before they had him tone down the dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/13 "2002-09-20T13:10:45Z")
This is the best thing about smilies, in my opinion. Since everyone has become so conditioned to the stupid things, when you don’t use them, people take you seriously (Not Ender, the people who took Ender seriously). It’s the equivalent of telling a lie with a straight face, and I’ve gotten plenty of mileage out of it. I dislike them not only because I don’t see them as necessary, but because they are so often abused. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone on a message board completely insult someone and then put a smiley after it as if that somehow makes it all better. Smilies, to me, are the laugh tracks of message boards. And they’re as grating to me as laugh tracks are, for much the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-smilie-a-moment-in-history-for-geeks/128299/14 "2002-09-20T14:54:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > \*\*I dislike them not only because I don’t see them as necessary, but because they are so often abused. \*\* :rolleyes: