What do they all have in common? Chat emticons of course! They’re a way of communicating with other people, without having to find the exact word or phrase every time. Sometimes I like to have whole conversations with my friends and ONLY use emoticons!

I first started using emoticons when I was 16. We used AOL at home (my mum got it free from her job at a bank) so we would log on and use their AIM chat program. It was revolutionary! I remember some early chatroom software also used emoticons, but chat slowly died out to be replaced with IM. I think that chat might have been a bit too dangerous or something. Anyway, instant messengers were the future, and emoticons changed with them.

MSN is the world leader in chat, and their emoticons are known all over the world. The wink, the shades guy…all of them are completely synonymous with chatting. Facebook chat has recently brought in a lot of emoticons, but I’m not sure whether they will take off because of their ease of use. We’ll see.

Anyway, I hope I can keep you informed about chat emoticons and smileys – we’ll see!