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Culture Determines Which Emoticon You Use
Ant writes "A LiveScience story discusses the cultural differences in interpreting facial expressions. The article notes that where you come from plays a large role in what part of the human face you use to determine another person's mood. That also includes communicating online with the usages of smiley faces. 'For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan ... In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). "After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles," he said.'"
Case A: you are the culture that still reads the text, can understand a joke, can understand sarcasm, can use and read cultural associations including ones not just in your (or nerd) popular culture, can... What is even worse, you expect that from the people around you. If that is the case - you are an endangered animal in a world of TXT-abuse. You need to be entered in the red book of endangered species, towards the end, near the black pages.
;-) much more than English or Americans, Brits tend to use the ROFL emoticon more and so on.
;-)
Case B: you need a break. Long one to restore your sense of humour.
According to the good slashdot tradition I am not going to RTFA, but I will pitch in my 2c anyway. The observation is correct. If you look at eastern Europeans they use the
Cheers
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
... can't stop now!
//misses his C64 ///with the BIG ol' 300 baud Vicmodem ///:D
I first saw an emoticon when I started using Quantum Link (AOL before it became AOL.) I was in a chat room and was confused because now and then someone would end their sentence with ":D"
Eventually I had to ask and someone wrote "look at it sideways."
Using a few basic emoticons has become as natural to me as regular punctuation marks, and just like regular punctuation when it is used responsibly it clarifies and enhances communication.
I'm in Korea, not Japan, and they tend to use the Korean alphabet to indicate emoticons (e.g. _ for sad). I think it's fine, but the emoticon is obviously limited in scope because of the need to type in Korean. People writing to me in English still switch into their Korean input for emoticons.
... still related) because five in Thai is pronounced "Ha!" 555 = Ha ha ha!
In Thailand, they use "555" instead of "lol" (I know, not emoticons
Put identity in the browser.
Sorry, but the parent isn't insightful, it's misinformation. What the article's author is saying is that the Japanese don't make big smiles. You've actually got it backwards.
Japanese people don't spend a lot of time looking into other people's eyes. It makes people very uncomfortable. I've even been recommended, on more than one occasion, to look at someone's chest rather than their face. During conversation, it's important to look away from the other person occasionally. The practice has the odd effect of making Japanese people in Western countries sometimes appear unattentive or uninterested. During meetings at work, I'm often the only one even looking in the direction of the person who's talking.
So, it isn't that Japanese people stare into each other's eyes all the time. His point is that Japanese people (especially the older generation) can be not very expressive about their emotions. Since they don't make big smiles or frowns, grimacing emoticons don't make sense. What little emotion is conveyed through the face is shown in a person's eyes. A greatly exaggerated version of this forms the Japanese smiley.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
After the N+1st flamewar on USENET, it slowly penetrated my conservative neanderthal brain that emoticons might actually have valid use: indicating tone-of-voice. Email/postings (incl /.) are very abbreviated, telegraphic, and intentions can easily be misread. Flamewars often result between participants who fundamentally agree. Homor usually falls flat without much greater context. An emoticon alerts the reader of the tone intended.
So I have come to see emoticons as a second order punctuation. Punctuation separates ideas; emoticons indicate tone. Personally, I very rarely use anything other than :) to indicate [non obvious] humor, irony and sarcasm. I'm not sure where I would use anything else without being totally redundant. For this is a common error -- most people who use emoticons use them excessively, to indicate tone when there could be no other. That is almost as annoying as people who under-utilise emoticons :) [I might have been serious here, but I'm mildly sarcastic]
Things must be changing then. My relatives look directly into my eyes when speaking to me. It's true about the "older" generations (like my grandparents in their 90s) but my parents (in their 60s) crack jokes, smile brightly, and are visually expressive. The only time that I'm aware of that looking down is appropriate is when you're being submissive, like when you're being reprimanded by your boss or parents. I'm not saying that you're wrong--just that our experiences are quite different. However, I share your experience about there being less emphasis on eye contact. Visual or audible indications (like nodding or "hmmm") that indicate that you're paying attention are still required though. Anyone with their eyes closed during a meeting (which isn't uncommon and can show intent listening) that isn't making any type of gesture could very well be sleeping. :-) (I'm American born and started BBSing in the 1990 so I use the horizontal type. BTW, I was referring to my relatives in Japan, not just my immediate family who has been in the U.S. for 30+ years.)