Word Emoticons And What They Are Good For

People have a strange way of expressing their emotions especially on the Internet through the use of word emoticons. The Internet does not give much of an avenue for one to physically express how he or she feels, especially when in a conversation through an instant messenger or email. This is where these word images can be very handy to use.

The Difference

There is a difference between using emoticons and using a worded image. The biggest difference is that a regular emoticon is only a graphic representation of what one is doing. This graphic can be used to show if one is happy, sad, is on the phone, etc. However, there are no graphics for such expressions such as "be right back", "yes", "right", or "I’m bored"; there are no direct ones at least and the ones that do exist may not be as clear to some people as they think. This is a worded graphic may come in handy. It’s still an image only this time the actual words are included in the graphic as well. You can actually have the words "I gotta go!" or "Give me a minute" display on the screen during an Internet chat or through an email. This makes the worded graphic even more useful than the regular emoticon.

The Advantage

Word emoticons are just so much easier to create and use. In fact, they can be made using a simple picture editor and you don’t need to use fancy graphics.

You can use words and have them glow or just flash; it’s up to the user what kind of effect he or she wants to use. These worded emoticons are becoming so popular that they are now being more and more recognized in Internet communities that have grown accustomed to regular image emoticons. The reason behind this is that the messages are straightforward because the emotions are spelled out for readers; literally. Although emoticons already do that job, there are some Internet users who do not like using graphical emoticons for a number of reasons including graphics that are not appealing and misinterpreted graphics. With simple words, one can use lettered emoticons to convey what they would like to express.

Where To Get Them

Since these worded emoticons are becoming popular, one can actually find them on the Internet. A simple Google search will point users to various sites that have them ready for download. Many of them are free and all you have to do is just right-click your mouse and save them to your desktop. They can then be imported into emails or into instant messengers such as MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

Making Your Own

It’s also possible to make your own emoticons if you do not find any that fully express different situations that you would like too in your conversations. Worded emoticons are easy to create just by using a picture editing program such as Photoshop. Since you will be using words, you won’t need any drawing skills to make these. Most of them are made in the animated GIF format so make sure to research about making those first. It doesn’t take too much computer or graphics-savvy to make a worded graphic. And in the end, you might just get so used to making them that you can upload your own for others to download on the Internet.

With Internet conversations becoming more complicated, people need more ways to get rid of wrongly communicated ideas, whether through email or IM chat conversations. Emoticons were thought to be the best way to replace many reactions, moods and emotions online; but it all boils down to using word emoticons to really fully express what it is you want to say.