For the record, they didn't start among young people. Emoticons were in use on the Internet before I got online in 1990. Kids ran with them because they want pe

For the record, they didn't start among young people. Emoticons were in use on the Internet before I got online in 1990. Kids ran with them because they want people to know what they are feeling and the feeling they are trying to portray, which can be nearly impossible to do in reasonably succinct writing. An occasional emoticon can be useful, but it is easy to over do it. If I see five, I think "immature". If i see one, I don't think anything.