A Brief History
On September 19, 1982, Professor Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University, posted on the school’s bulletin board the first documented emoticons, the simple use of a colon, a dash and either a right or left facing curved bracket, indicating a “Happy Face” or a “Sad Face.”
Digging Deeper
Born in Medina, Ohio back in 1948, Fahlman is now a Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon and has a long career in academia and in the private sector developing computer languages and software. His studies at MIT included Artificial Intelligence, pioneering work in the field.
The idea of “emoticons” actually first appeared in a Reader’s Digest article in 1967, though with no text messaging or email at the time, the idea faded away. Even author Vladimir Nabokov expressed a desire for emoticons, though without inventing any.
Today there are an untold number of thousands of emoticons and emojis used by 90% of online users, though only 3782 recognized emojis.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What is your favorite emoticon or emoji?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Asbayo, Ali. Emoticons & Emojis Learn everything you want about Emoticons and Emojis. Independently published, 2022.
BarCharts Inc. Im Abbreviations, Texting & Emoticons. QuickStudy, 2015.
