Give Us a Smiley

Besides repurposing the hashtag (in Twitter) and the slash (in HTML web addresses), computer technology led to a whole slew of new symbols—first emoticons (“emotive icons”) and then emojis. Scott E. Fahlman invented the emoticon in 1982 at Carnegie Mellon University in an early online newsgroup. Concerned that humorous remarks were being taken seriously by his colleagues and students, Fahlman added a sideways smiley face 🙂 as well as a frowny face :-(. He failed to patent his idea, however, and never made a dime off it. 🙁