The Emoticon

   Perhaps I am alone in this, but I truly find emoticons to be strange things. There are so many variations of a single "emotion" that it honestly staggers my mind. I suppose we could make the argument that they stand in for the visual cues that we depend on while communicating in person. Along that same line, we could say the variety simply personalizes the responses. Mmmmmm, not really. I don't see how the variations in smiley faces can even begin to replace actual facial cues. 
Normal :) With a nose :-) Other direction (: Make them think (-: Give the face character :^)
[*It should be noted that these are just a few of the actual smiley faces that are typical*] 
   Yeah, that really doesn't do it for me. The second set takes me a little longer to comprehend, and actually annoys me a bit; ditto for the other variations of the face. The thought of "Why can you just type it like everyone else????" does actually cross my mind, irrational though it may be.

   There is such a process that we go through that we don't even think about to add a face. The questions that we must ask ourselves: Nose or no nose? Is this face flirting? Which way should it face? Am I serious? Surprised? Do I want the face to actually match my true feeling? Will I offend this person if I stick my tongue out at them? Is the mouth curved or angular? Do I have an actual response, or is the face the response? and WHO'S THE GENIUS/IDIOT WHO THOUGHT OF THIS? (The version of the last one depends on how your communication has been going...)

   They, and other little symbols that you can make thanks to facebook chat (a penguin, shark, or robot to name a few,) are fillers. We use them to fill gaps in conversations. We try to use them to soften text messages that didn't get typed right. We also use them in attempts to clarify the spirit in which the message is/was given. I think they've become a lot like using LOL. It's another communication adaptation gone awry, by becoming insincere and meaningless in most contexts.

Does all of this really mean the emoticon is just a bastardization of facial cues? How uplifting... ;)