In person, non-verbal cues and facial expressions communicate the necessary emotion to the conversant parties.
In other words, for the most part, people don’t get offended when we say something in person because we can see how the other is interacting.
However, in email, cell phone text, Facebook status updates, or a tweet… emotion is best communicated via an emoticon. I used to think these were just for middle school girls to use to “smile” at their BFF (Best Friend Forever). However, I have begun to use the oldest emoticon, the smiley face 🙂 mainly because if I’m being sarcastic, facetious, or funny, I need to communicate that I’m being that emotion. I can’t count on my emotion coming through the words I type. I can’t tell you how that emoticon has saved me in communication!
Here is an infographic that gives some examples of which emoticons to use when:
HT ChurchMag
