The fun thing is how you can "date" this great essay to pre-2000 since it includes ";-)" instead of the more modern ";)", has anyone ever looked at the development of the use of emoticons over time?
$0.02
(an imperfect alternative as some parse it as a failed :( )
Now you can turn this off locally but people receiving them will still think you are childish : )
The earliest and strongest claim is that emoticon use varies like accents or dialects. He claims that the nose is associated with more conventionality or adult interests regardless of age, but doesn't disclose the strength of the association. Based on the call out of the nose in the subheading, I suspect it's primarily mentioned to make the article more interesting.
Relevant portion of article:
Schnoebelen has found that use of emoticons varies by geography, age, gender, and social class—just like dialects or regional accents. Friend groups fall into the habit of using certain emoticons, just as they develop their own slang. “You start using new emoticons, just like you start using different words, when you move outside your usual social circles,” said Schnoebelen. He discovered a divide, for instance, between people who include a hyphen to represent a nose in smiley faces— :-) — and people who use the shorter version without the hyphen. “The nose is associated with conventionality,” said Schnoebelen. People using a nose also tend to “spell words out completely. They use fewer abbreviations.” Twitter notoriously obscures demographic data, but according to Schnoebelen, “People who use no noses tend to be tweeting more about Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber. They have younger interests, younger concerns, whether or not they’re younger.”
Well, that is definitely me. I refuse to abbreviate my words or my emoticons. :-)