Technology Lesson: Emoticons

Emoticons have a history pre-dating the Internet, but it's the Internet's symbols that confuse Old People, so in the interest of ease, we'll focus on the emoticons a person may use and experience in an e-mail.

If these symbols look like a series of misused punctuation, tilt your head counterclockwise.

:) – happy
:D – happy, with full teeth
D: – displeasure
:( – unhappy
;) – winking
:p – sticking your tongue out, teasing
:/ – bored, or "ehhhhh"
:? – confused
:0 – surprise
:x – sealed lips, embarrassment
:-* – kiss
<3 – a heart

Please note that the parentheses is sometimes replaced with brackets ([, ], }, {) or the colon may be replaced by an equal sign, and many emoticons may use a dash for a nose. Here are some examples:

:-)
:-p
:]
:[
:}
:{
=)
=(

Additional Resources:
List of Emoticons Wikipedia article