Text Based Emoticons

Technology has changed the way we communicate. Not so long ago, letters and telephone calls were the most widely used form of communication. People wrote poems and proses to express their inner most feelings. With the advent of mobile phones, IM as well as Facebook, communication has become easier. All you need to do, is type in what's on your mind and send it. The receiver instantly gets you message, and all he/she has to do send back a reply in the same fashion. There are many tools to communicate today. Thus, we end up typing messages all day long either in form of a SMS, instant chat or Facebook chat. But, we cannot express our happiness, disgust, sadness or a comical face to the receiver. In this case, one needs to use text-based emoticons.

Emoticons are facial expressions that one can create by typing some punctuations and letters. They prove to be great short forms, and save time from typing lengthy words. These actually emote the human expressions and feelings. If you are new to text-based messaging or are not a pro-efficient user, then it tends to become very difficult to decipher these simple symbols. Worry not friends, the following table will cover some basic emoticons for Facebook, IM, e-mail, SMS, etc. You may find some characters are repeated for different emotions or some emotions are representative by different signs. This is because you can easily interchange the different symbols depending on the context of your conversation.

List of Emoticons

The following table contains most of the emoticons that you can use in a text based conversation. All you need to do is learn the punctuation marks and create faces using them. If you want to stick out your tongue at someone, all you need to do is use a colon and capital P. This means you type in : + P and you get :P. This emoticon means you are either teasing someone or expressing disgust.

Emoticon	Meaning
:(	Sad
;)	Wink
:/	Doubtful/unsure
:P	Sticking tongue out
:O	Shocked/scream
:|	Expressionless
:S	Confused
<3	Heart/love
B)	Glasses
:}	Mustache
xD	Laughing hard
xP	Disgusted
X(	Pouting/frustrated
:*(	crying
:3	Cute/cat-like
:-*	Kiss on the cheek
>:O	Angry/screaming
:X	Sealed lips
0:)	Angel/angelic
@)-v--	Rose
O---	Lollipop
:-||	Angry
:-(0)	Shouting
:-O	Wow
:-|	Determined
:-*	Bitter
O:-)	An angel
:-9	Salivating
:-|/:-I	No face/poker face
%-6	Not very clever
:-()	Shocked
:-~)	Having a cold
:-o, zz	Bored
:-	Skeptical
: @	Shouting
:-o	Appalled
:-X	Not saying a word
|-I	Sleeping
|-O	Snoring
%-}	Intoxicated
:-v	Talking
:-w	Talking with two tongues
B-)	Sunglasses
B:-)	Sunglasses on head
8:-)	Glasses on head
{:-)	Toupee
}:-(	Toupee blowing in the wind
=|:-)=	Uncle Sam
{:-|	Monk / Nun
:^)	Broken nose
-:-)	Punk
@:-)	Using a turban
:=)	Two noses
:-#	Razes
{;|-)	Chinese
:-{)	With a mustache
:-{}	Lip stick
:-?	Smoking a pipe
:-(	Very angry

Japanese Emoticons

If you are a fan of kaomoji, then the following list of Japanese emoticons will be prove to be a useful read.

Emoticon	Meaning
＿|￣|○, orz, OTL, etc	Depressed
（　ﾟ Дﾟ）	Shocked
( ´∀｀）	Laughing
(´･ω･`)	Snubbed
(^^ゞ or (^^;)	Shy
(^_^;)	Troubled
（＾_＾） or （＾_＾	Laughing
(＾▽＾)	Laughing
（＾ｖ＾）	Laughing
（￣□￣；）	Surprised
（￣ー￣）	Grinning
（゜◇゜）	Surprised
（・∀・）	Laughing
('A`)	Snubbed
（'-'*)	Laughing
（*´▽｀*）	Infatuation
(*^▽^*)	Joyful
(*￣m￣)	Dissatisfied
(*°∀°)=3	Infatuation
(#^.^#)	Shy
(>_<)	Troubled
(≧∇≦)/	Joyful
(ーー;)	Worried
(Ｔ▽Ｔ)	Crying
(ToT)	Crying
∩( ・ω・)∩, ( ・ω・)	Joyful
⌒▽⌒）	Laughing
ヽ（´ー｀）┌	Mellow
m(_ _)m	Apologizing
キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!, (゜∀゜)	"I'm here!!!

These are all the smilies that you can use in a virtual conversation. Add spice and add fun to your text messages by placing the right punctuations and letter at the right time!