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> It turns out that a world freshly speckled with [emoji smile] is not really such a changed world after all.

I've recently discovered there is a generational gap in smiley usage :)

If you are younger, my ":)" above can be taken more as a condescending smirk that puts down the reader. If you are older, it is just a smile and signifies that I'm, well, what a smile usually means: I'm being friendly, happy, non-threatening.

I apparently now have to watch how I use smileys because younger people have started interpreting the symbol, imho, incorrectly :(

(I am unaware if a similar proviso extends to the sad face above)



Actually even on IRC in the 90's, sometimes :) was sarcastic, really depended on context anyways. 5% chance of sarcasm.

Internet is a highly sarcastic world so it's not a surprise that people eventually perceive it to be more sarcastic than it should be I suppose.

You can just add a - to make it unambiguous. :-)


Or a caret if you want to make it unambiguous in the other direction.




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