Emoticons #
There are many cultural differences around which emoticons people use. While the sideways :)
style emoticons are more common in western cultures, the “right-side-up” style emoticons are more popular in eastern countries. Perhaps owing to their greater expressiveness, or the influence of manga on western culture and internet culture in particular, eastern-style emoticons have gained in popularity in the west, especially among nerds.
I started using them because they seemed to capture much more emotion, and lend themselves to a wider range of expressiveness. But for those unfamiliar with their meaning, they can be confusing.
The trick is to look at them as right-side-up faces, eyes on the sides, mouth in the middle. The size and position of the eyes usually indicates the emotion. It might help to put them in parentheses like (^_^)
so it looks more like a face. These are the ones I use. There are a bunch more, especially in Kanji and other languages where there are many more shapes to play with.
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ToT
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Crying a lot. The Ts are eyes squinted shut, with a stream of tears. The “o” is a wide open mouth, because you’re crying so hard. Think WAAAAAAA!!!! like a cartoon baby.
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T_T
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Lotta tears, but not wailing. Maybe you’re just chopping onions or something.
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;_;
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Crying a little. The ;s are an eye with one tear coming down, and the mouth is shut. Sniff sniff.
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v_v
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Quiet frustrated resignation. Eyes are pointed down. “Alright. Fine. Whatever.”
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/_\
/o\
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Profound dismay. Opposite of smiling. Eyebrows are lifted in the middle, very sad. With the open mouth, it’s a wail of extreme sorrow.
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O_O
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Whoa!! Exclamation, surprise. Eyes are wide open.
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-_-
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Sleeping. Eyes are shut.
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=_=
g_g
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Sleepy. Note the bags under the eyes.
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>_<
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Furious or hurt. Like you just stubbed your toe. Fuck! Face is scrunched up.
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>o<
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Yelling about it!
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~o~
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Yawn (eyes are closed, mouth open)
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@.@
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Dizzy, confused, disoriented. whoooaaa…
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$_$
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Thinking about money (Like the cartoons where the person’s eyes would go “chaching!”)
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x_x
X_X
*…*
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Dead (x’s over the eyes, skeleton face.)
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o_O
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Raised eyebrow, quizzical, interested. “Hm..?”
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o_O?
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Scratching head. Like
o_O
but a bit more confused or intrigued. -
^_^
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Happy, grinning
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^o^
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WOW! YAY! Eyes are smiling, mouth wide open exclaiming about something. Sometimes with arms, like
\(^o^)/
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*^_^*
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blushing
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;^_^
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Embarrassed, smiling. From the manga tradition of putting a giant sweat drop by the face of a character to indicate discomfort. More ; means more embarrassed.
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d^_^b
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Listening to music, headphones on
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^.^
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A happy kiss.