There have been many creations in the history of mankind and art. But the widest spread, brought the joy, pleasure and happiness the appearance of emoticons. Who came up with these understandable icons for everyone? They are made so simple, but carry a lot of information. Let's go with you to the interesting world of funny faces, find out who came up with emoticons first, what they mean and interesting facts about them. Well, go ahead!
What is a smiley face?
The modern Internet has collected a large amount of information and communication tools. People plunge into a global network to find like-minded people, interlocutors, friends, partners. Often here, as during real events, real passions rise. To make them easier to express in virtual conditions, a simple and ingenious invention appeared - emoticons. Who invented and when (date) these icons, you will learn later in the article.
Users who are a little accustomed to the network, noticed the accompaniment of some messages with special brackets, colons. Most already know the meaning of these icons. You understand that we are talking about emoticons. Who invented this tool is no longer a secret. There are several versions of the appearance of funny faces on the Internet. We will name them all.
Almost all netizens use emoticons. If you see a colon, dash, and parenthesis in your correspondence, you will immediately realize that your virtual friend is smiling. Often emotions are represented by alphabet symbols, numbers, punctuation marks. By this, people express sadness, severity, severity, cunning, ingratiation. But the very first schematic representation of an emoticon is a smile. In English, smile means "smile."
Smile inventor deserves the erection of a virtual monument. Only society cannot find a consensus on who came up with emoticons first. But there were many attempts to restore the truth. Honestly, it would not be entirely fair to assign such a global merit to mankind alone. Today it is established that several people have contributed to the history and mass distribution of emoticons.
When communicating on social networks, we do not see our interlocutors, their emotions, moods, so special icons help express all feelings. Young people use emoticons especially often.
The first yellow faces of the artist Harvey Ball
The first smile in the form of a funny yellow kolobok was drawn by an artist from America Harvey Ball. It was like this ... In the 60s of the last century, large American insurance companies began to merge. This process was painful and affected the corporate morale of colleagues. Unsure of tomorrow, employees began to get annoyed and more sad. Representatives of one of these companies decided to somehow raise the spirit of workers. After all, it was important that they meet with customers with a smile, with pleasure go to the phone and work with documents.
In order to improve the situation, they came up with an advertising campaign. For her, they decided to choose the right memorable logo. Insurers turned to the artist Harvey Ball (1963) for help. The whole development of the idea took 10 minutes. The work of the artist cost only 45 dollars. Ball did not even think of protecting his copyright. The first emoticon was made in the form of an icon and attached with a pin to the clothes of an employee of the company. The icons in the form of smiling emoticons were very popular among everyone. Soon, State Mutual Life Assurance Cos. of America 10,000 similar badges have been ordered.
The whole world learned about the smile only in the 70s. In addition, the slogan was coined for him by two brothers from Spain: Have a Happy Day. This motto with a smile became a hit. Smiles began to be used for emblems, cards, baseball caps, t-shirts. They sold out very quickly. And the US Postal Service even issued a stamp in the form of a Ball emoticon. Later, other entrepreneurs began to claim copyright for the invention. Ball began to fight for his find. Already at an advanced age, the artist instituted World Smile Day (the first Friday of October). On this day, it is customary to adhere to the slogan urging to do good, and help other people smile. And Ball himself was a very good-natured man, without hatred and malice.
Development of the electronic version of emoticons
Smile had a long way to go until he became recognized by the computer community. The beginning was laid in the late 60s. In one version, it is believed that the development of a smiling face in the network took place simultaneously and independently and did not depend on the invention of Ball. Specialized PLATO platforms sewed up the first electronic emoticons in the early 70s. Now, to see them, it was not necessary to tilt your head to the side. Symbols were cunningly superimposed by the program on each other.
At first, simple computer emoticons were used in games. In search engines, you can often see the following question: "Which university professor came up with emoticons?" Yes, indeed, Scott Falman came up with a combination of brackets, dashes and colons to express positive emotions in electronic correspondence. Falman is a scientist at Carnegie Mellon University.
Offers by Vladimir Nabokov
But not only Falman suggested using the bracket as a smile. Even before him, the famous writer Vladimir Nabokov proposed to do this. To create a smiley for him meant to introduce a special punctuation mark to graphically display emotions. The writer called such an innovation "some sort of squiggle or backward dropped bracket" that accompanied the answers to questions.
Version of the origin of the popular children's counters
Many people like the version that the impetus for the appearance of smiles was the counter “Point, period, comma ...” It says about the face of the curve. Indeed, such images could appear long before the introduction of mobile phones and computers. There is an opinion that even in Ancient China of the 17th century, similar icons were used. Researchers have noticed some similarities with them.
Varieties of funny faces
When the emoticons were invented, you already understand, now let's talk a little about their types. Today in different social networks you can see many emoticons. There are a lot of varieties of these icons. Some of them denote not only emotions, but also the state of a person and his appearance. Laughing, smiling emoticons are very cute. There are pensive, neutral, pensive, surprised icons. One of the most popular is a smiley in the form of a kiss.
Smiley Research
Sometimes experts conduct research on icons found on the Internet. Funny smiles naturally hold leadership. There are five times fewer sad smiles than positive ones. But there are very few indifferent faces. Every 6th Internet site uses emoticons.
Interesting to know!
There are some interesting facts about smiles:
- Swedish director Ingmar Bergman first used a stylized sad badge in his film Port City (1953). Five years later, he also used a funny face in the commercials of the films "Lily" and "Gigi".
- In Soviet cinema, the display of the emoticon in the cinema was used by Naum Birman in his comedy "Three in a boat, not counting a dog." In it, a tin can becomes an emoticon, which the heroes of the picture pound with a stone. The film was shot on the novel of the same name by Jerome K. Jerome.
- There is an assumption that such emoticons were in the XIX century. When experts decoded Abraham Lincoln’s speech, they found an icon in the text :). He followed the words "applause and laughter."
- Even drug dealers use emoticons. So, in America, ecstasy pills called Green Smiley are used.
- Smartphone manufacturers are constantly arguing about emoticons. Many companies even sue to protect similar rights.
- Asians use horizontal emoticons - Emoji. To consider them, a preliminary coup is not required. For example, the @ _ @ icon expresses surprise, the shock is O_o.
Small physiognomy in social networks with us for over 30 years. Flash mobs and promotions are constantly held in the world where people compete in making smiles. Even some artistic characters and historical figures are portrayed using emoticons (smiles).