Conveying emotion in a digital world: 40 years of :)

Colon, minus, bracket: In 1982, a computer scientist put three characters together to convey that a piece of writing was meant humorously. Four decades later, it's hard to imagine online chat without emojis and emoticons. — dpa

BERLIN: In the digital world of communication without facial expressions and body language, emojis are as important as punctuation.

Using them to underscore our tone and emotions now comes naturally to many of us. Particularly after two years of social distancing during the pandemic they have come to seem almost indispensable.