Emoticons can't replace real words

...emotional icons, or emoticons, are becoming substitutes for being able to express ourselves, even in a short sentence, like regular human beings.

I KNOW it's hard sometimes to pen that perfect, poignant phrase in the event of a tragedy. We've all had that moment of writer's block when it comes to signing a condolence card. Heck, it's hard enough to be imaginative for an employee's leaving card, beyond the standard "all the best".

But what is unfortunate is that emotional icons, or emoticons, are becoming substitutes for being able to express ourselves, even in a short sentence, like regular human beings.

An emoticon is a symbol using punctuation marks to represent an identifiable expression or emotion, such as :-( when read sideways. However, with the explosion of social media and smartphone technology, people can obtain graphic emoticons, generally variations on the 1960s round yellow ball with a smiley face. You can even get animated ones, that laugh or cry when you open the message on your phone or email.

I've now seen eight emoticons in a row, in eight postings in a row, for our updated story on Facebook on the death of Laura Jessop, the teenager who died after the car crash on Monday night. All the postings bar one have no text, just the symbol of an unhappy face.

I understand these are almost certainly people who are not close to the victim but want to connect as a community member, to acknowledge the tragedy. And that is a worthy notion. It just worries me.

I think we start to emotionally disconnect ourselves when we find methods to avoid being able to articulate properly and spontaneously. Texting was the start of that, I think. Some might call it communication, but it's still planned communication, with the ability to alter before sending. It avoids actual conversation. If we constantly defer having real conversations, we'll lose the ability to express ourselves. And that's not a good thing, in a community with a high youth suicide rate.