Smile, please, you're on email

If you’ve ever ended an e-mail message or an instant message with an emoticon, now might be a good time to pause and reflect on the work of Scott E. Fahlman. It is 25 years ago this month since Mr. Fahlman, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, invented the digital smiley face. After a colleague joked about a contaminated elevator on an electronic bulletin board and this remark was mis-interpreted, Mr. Fahlman had his eureka moment: He recommended that future quipsters mark their jokes with :-) to make sure no one misconstrued their comments.

Simon Jenkins picks up on the use of emoticons in today's Guardian: I'd rather mingle souls by letter than live a life of regret through email. He writes that he is concerned that "email has become a substitute for both the telephone and the letter, and an inadequate one at that. As against the telephone, email is a distancing device. It not only eliminates tone of voice, it prevents interruption or response. It is a one-way conversation, a monologue, with all the rudeness that can imply."

After stating that he feels emails ought to carry a standard health warning, he concludes: "do something you may not have done for ages. Write a proper letter, rewriting it if necessary. The recipient will be amazed and delighted that you have taken the time. You will have written what you meant to say, and I bet you will have used no emoticons."