You may have spied that I use text based emoticons in my comics. This is a total nod at my early internet beginnings on IRC & ICQ and my MMORGP days. I’ve always been a great believer that you can express great emotional connection through type chat alone, but very much helped by emoticons… there was none of this video and VOIP stuff when I started out =P.
Most people gain their own style of emoticon that reflects themselves. Here are some of the ones I personally use the most day to day and what I personally associate with them:
| =) | Happy |
| =D | Very happy, laughing |
| XD | Super happy & excited |
| =P | Lolz, cheeky, joking |
| =O | Shocked, gasp, unbelievable |
| =( | Sad |
| =/ or =| | Slightly unimpressed, oh, that’s a shame |
| —_— | Narrowed eyes, very unimpressed edging on irritated |
| o_O | Raised eyebrow, skeptical, rubbish, confusion, that’s weird |
| ^.^ | Super cute happy! |
| \o/ | Cheer, yah! |
Ones I use occasionally:
| o/ | hand up, wave |
| Fake crying | |
| >_> | Shifty eyes, I didn’t do it |
| °(O.O)° | Panda |
Ones I don’t use myself but think are kwel:
| ˘\(°_o)/˘ | Don’t know |
| =^.^= | Cat |
| T.T or Y_Y | Crying (like QQ) |
| \m/ | Rock on (fingers) |
| ~_^ | Wink |
| (-.-)zzZZ | Sleeping |
Well the possibilities are endless and can only be limited by your imagination. Give it a go =D