Against Emoticons

A year or two ago, an acquaintance I corresponded with briefly indicated her hatred of emoticons, especially the everpresent smiley face 🙂 .  I found her dismay amusing, but it stayed with me..to the point where I am agreeing.

Often, the smiley face is used to lessen the blow of a complaint or criticism or sarcastic reply. I understand what it’s doing, but when people use it too much or when they use it to evade giving a straightforward reply, it can seem really irritating.

As a writer, I know how to indicate tone by style and sentence structure. These emoticons are cues mainly for rushed communication.  But even for that  emoticons seem like a copout 🙂

Now you’ve read the last line.  What does it mean? Do I agree that emoticons are a copout? Am I saying I oppose emoticons (because they are a copout)?  Am I saying, I really don’t care if they are a copout? Or am I saying, it may seem like a copout, but if you look more closely, you will find that they are not copouts at all.  Do I think it’s funny that emoticons are a copout? Honestly, I don’t know.