Why You Should Still Use Basic MSN Emoticons

Basic MSN emoticons are now quickly being replaced by more complicated looking emoticons. This is definitely something to be excited about.

These days, you no longer need to stick to the usual boring emoticons that you have been using for years. There are times though when the use of these basic emoticons still make better sense.

Evolution of Emoticons

There is evidence that early versions of smiley faces were already in use in the 1950s or even earlier. It was only in the 1960s however that the well-known and well-loved yellow smiling face created by Harvey Ball became popular. The original smiley face by Ball was used to support the morale of employees in a one big company. The formal proposal however of using a specific ASCII character encoding for happy and sad emotions is credited to Scott Fahlman. In 1982, he proposed that the colon followed by a dash and a close parenthesis be used to mean a happy emotion in text form. An open parenthesis following the colon and dash meant a sad emotion.

It was from these basic text emoticons that modern, full color emoticons emerged. Now, aside from being able to communicate happiness and sadness, users can also convey other emotions such as boredom, excitement, panic, love, tiredness and many more. There are now numerous basic MSN emoticons, advanced MSN emoticons and other emoticons from different sources.

How to Enter Emoticons

In the past, emoticons were simple sequences of text. Old typical emoticons therefore would simply look like a series of dots, dashes, brackets and parentheses. In time these codes were recreated by artists into real circular faces with expressions. Now, you can use a full colored expressive emoticon in MSN chat and forums by typing the original code which would then be automatically transformed into a colored emoticon.

Aside from the usual happy and sad faces, there are also some other basic and simple MSN emoticons. Here are some of them:

A semicolon followed by a dash and a close parenthesis is used to generate a winking emoticon.

A dot or period followed by a colon, dash and an open parenthesis is a frowning emoticon.

A colon followed by a dash and a capital D means an open mouthed and wide smile.

A colon immediately followed by an open parenthesis is a confused emoticon.

A colon followed by an apostrophe and an open parenthesis means you are crying.

There are of course many more MSN emoticons that are considered basic. All of them emerge after typing a series of text codes. Most MSN users have already memorized some of their text codes and simply enter the codes automatically when communicating with others. Sometimes though, users who do not frequently use MSN find it a chore to have to memorize codes. This is why MSN and many other different online service providers now have drop down boxes from where users can simply click on emoticons that they want to be inserted.

Modern MSN Emoticons

There are now more than just the usual basic MSN emoticons. Users now also have the option to use more complicated codes that translate to more complicated emotions. There are even emoticons that move, make sounds or carry other items. You can easily find the text codes of these emoticons online. You can also simply opt to get a free drop down box with numerous emoticons to choose from.

Disadvantage to Variety

We all love the fact that we have lots of options to choose aside from basic MSN emoticons. Sometimes though, the many different emoticons can equally send out ambiguous messages. This would mean even more confusion for readers. It is therefore sometimes advisable to use basic MSN emoticons to clearly convey what you mean.