Why Emoticons Became Popular?

The Transformation of Language

Having a good vocabulary is considered to be a quality for any individual.  It’s a virtue, which makes one a good writer or an excellent speaker. But unfortunately virtues do not really drive the society forward. The language and expression of communication changes rapidly. We can really fantasize about some flowery words being spoken to us, or being used to describe our otherwise meaningless attributes. But when it comes to using them, we do the smart thing by avoiding them. The scholars of the knowledge societies might disagree, but the fact is that the “Knowledge Society” is actually not the real society we dwell in. The real society is more adaptive and seeks easy lanes to survive and thus is more prone to changes. The society realizes that in order to stay alive, they must not complicate the process of communication. If someone does not understand the meaning of “bewildered” or “obnoxious”, it’s not really his fault or shortcoming. It is just the case of “message not delivered!” The fact that the society changes its pattern of communication actually depends on the socioeconomic factors which guide our lives. The day when people realize that communicating in a definite way is causing some hindrances, they would shift to an easier mechanism. Communication is something which should not be complicated or hazardous. We started from cave paintings and now we are dealing with Emoticons. There is not much of a difference among the two, as the purpose is all the same.

In very rare occasions, people tend to complicate the communication process. This is rather a purposeful attempt on the part of the individual in order to make his views more desirable to the others. But while attempting to convey a message to your boss or your girl in a limited time span, surrealistic paintings do not work. Complicated art forms are long term processes of delivering messages which resides much deeper in a person’s mind. But communication processes are mostly superficial and are guided by social trends. The situations are well defined and we know when to make a sad face. Thus during a condolence, no matter how excited you are about the job, you have to make a sad face. Likewise, no matter how bad you feel when the girl you liked is getting married to your best friend, you have to laugh and crack presumably funny jokes. The society is harsh I know, but at the same time, superficiality comes as a blessing. You can afford to be superficial in public. Even if you are tagged as an emotional, it’s rather the surface which you are revealing as you also know that the society will not value your actual emotions. Now, don’t start mourning over this! The fact is society cannot afford to value each others emotion. If you start considering the emotions of your subordinates, you will actually hamper the productivity. Everyone is equally happy and sad. Thus emoticons work wonder in these cases and I am telling the reason why.

Emoticons are faces, but they are animated. So, also you are making a face, the animation helps in maintaining the superficiality of it. Also at the same time, it helps you flat out the emotional waves. Sad, happy, angry are not one-dimensional feelings. But the process of communication rather demands them to be flat, as personally I cannot afford to look into you and asses the dynamics of your happiness or sadness. Thus a statement like “I think I am falling in love with you <3” and another statement “I think I am falling in love with you  :p” makes a hell lot of a difference. Suppose if I add a “ ;)” at the end of this useless article, you would keep guessing , what I actually wanted to say ! :D