Over the last decade, Emoticons and Smileys have gained massive popularity all over the Internet. They're widely used in all areas of online communication.
There is no clear date as to when the first emoticon was used nor is it clear who really invented the first emoticon. It is however generally accepted that the common sideways smiley face "The Smiley :-) in use today" was the First Internet Emoticon, created by computer scientist Scott Fahlman on September 19, 1982.
Since the dawn of communication between man there have been many symbols, codes and punctuation used to communicate emotions and feelings difficult to represent through text. Professor Fahlman originally suggested the use of this emoticon :-) after funny and humorous posts on the message board and the use of this emoticon :-( for every thing else that was not meant to be funny and all serious remarks.
The very first "Yellow Smiley Face" was created by Harvey Ball in 1963. The "Yellow Smiley" gained huge popularity in the following years, becoming an international icon by the 1970's and securing a place in Pop Culture for the coming decades. The growth of the Internet and the development of modern computer image formats allowed "The Smiley" to move online, cementing a place in Internet Culture. As ALL GEOCACHERS know "THE SMILEY" is our amazing reward for logging a FOUND CACHE.
THE SIDEWAYS SMILEY FACE, "THE SMILEY :-) IN USE TODAY" WAS CREATED BY COMPUTER SCIENTIST SCOTT FAHLMAN AND IS KNOWN AS WHAT ?????
THE FIRST INTERNET EMOTICON = N 40 46.986 W 078 54.765
"THE YELLOW SMILEY FACE" = N 40 47.675 W 078 54.968
CONGRATULATIONS TO schmuck&puttz FOR THE FTF