Updated On: 19 September, 2012 08:21 AM IST | | Ruchika Kher
For purists, it heralds the death of language, for others, it's a tool to add colour to communication. Whatever be your take, it's an accepted fact that the phenomenon of the emoticon is here to stay. On its 30th anniversary, The Guide spoke to a cross-section of people across the socio-economic and cultural landscape, to gauge its popularity
The story of emoticons, facial expressions created using punctuation marks and letters, usually to express a person’s mood in a written message, can be traced back to September 19, 1982 when in Pittsburg, Professor Scott Fahlman, sent an email on an online electronic bulletin board that included the first use of the sideways smiley face. Since then there has been no looking back.
