Email is the New Snail Mail. :-)

Everyday, people around the world churn out millions and millions of emails and text messages. In fact, there's never been a period in history that's involved so much correspondences. It's a fact that people have no idea how write or interpret when writing an email.

A simple email with clear instructions can bring a lot of different interpretations. For example, an email that says,

Jane,
I'm sorry to hear about you pet dog. Wished I was there to comfort you. Take care.

Love,
Bob.

This simple message can carry out a lot of interpretations. It can be justified on how the reader chose to read, either in a sarcastically way or a sympathetically. Now it was the inability of some people to accurately interpret emotions or intentions in email that led American, Scott Fahlman to invent 'emoticon'.

The birth of an emoticon was invented on the 19th September 1982 in the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It started with a smiley face which can be visible by typing a colon, a hyphen and a parenthesis.




The original text that Fahlman has emailed was;

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes – given current trends. For this, use

:-(

Today, emoticons are being inserted with colour and has many varieties of expressions and sometimes, it can even come out as graphical things with animation and so on. However, a lot of mail still uses the original three characters.



(Source: bizmediascience.com)

Email is a symbol of the way we treat one another. It reflects what kind of person we are in reality. Emails can be determine the relationship between the sender and the receiver. It can also be used to express gratitude or condolences.

With the generation we have today, it is essential for us to know how to email, text message, and instant message. Therefore, we are living in a highly literate generation that knows how to type, spell and use grammar.

Bacn has been described as "email you want but not right now. Bacn differs from spam in that the emails are not unsolicited: the recipient has somehow signed up to receive it. Bacn derives its name from the idea that it is "better than spam, but not as good as a personal email.

In conclusion, emoticons are a great way to add in our emails as the receivers would not misinterpret our intended message. Emails should always be personalized and a practice of a good email etiquette is essential.

When reading emails, we need to understand the social purpose of the particular text and the cultural context, and this understanding will be linked to our own purpose in using the particular text. Whatever the text, we often read to 'fill the gaps' to understand the cultural, social and specific content. (Schriver 1997, p.30)

Personally, emails are a great way to communicate with friends and families that are not physically here. Emoticons do play a large role in determining the seriousness of the email.

References

Emoticons and Email Etiquette, The Media Report, viewed 13th November 2008.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Schriver, K.A. 1997, ‘Chapter 6: The Interplay of Words and Pictures’, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Reader, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.