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Happy Birthday Emoticon :)

by Darren

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Talk about exciting news :)- Today is the 25th anniversary of the emoticon. Life would never have been same without this dubious invention.

Although some dispute that it was his innovation alone, Fahlman is thought to have used the first emoticon at 11.44am on an electronic bulletin board on this date in 1982. “I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-),” he typed. “Read it sideways.” A quarter of a century on, Yahoo is now sponsoring the Smiley Award, a student competition for “innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication”. The emoticon, they feel, is something to be celebrated.

Personally, I love emoticons and expect them to outlive most people. Happy Birthday Emo!

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