If you're on Facebook you have no doubt heard of, or seen, the new emoticon icons that rolled out a week ago.
Now when someone you are friends with posts a status update, you can do more than LIKE, COMMENT, or SHARE.
Hold your cursor over the LIKE icon and up pops a whole role of goodies, from LOVE, HAHA, WOW, SAD, and ANGRY.
There's been plenty of buzz about the icons. Some love them, saying that now they don't need to find the right words to express sorrow when a friend talks about a sad event for example. Others dislike them and believe the emoticons will only lead to the further degeneration of using words to express our feelings.
I don't care for them. I've used a few and found that if you use the ANGRY icon to express solidarity with someone who is complaining about something, they sometimes think you are angry with them, and not expressing support for their feelings.
And I think it's a disrespectful cop-out to use the SAD emoticon on a status where a friend is reporting the death of a beloved family member or pet. No one knows "the right thing" to say when someone is grieving but resorting to a sad face emoticon is not the right way to show a person you care.
What do you think of the emoticons?
2 comments:
I agree I don't care much for emoticons. I don't like sending messages either. A person can't tell if you are mad, happy etc.
Margaret
I agree. Where's the personal touch toward the other person? We are becoming a bunch of isolationist's who don't have time for other people and their feelings. How are our children going to feel when they see the change in communication? How did you feel when you found the first letter (for you anyway) that your ancestor wrote, and which would you rather have words or icons?
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