We’ve been using smiley faces online for 40 years now. How did that become a thing?

'Critics of emoticons argue that they erode the ability of people to communicate clearly and use language creatively in cyberspace, as well as in other forms of writing,' Brittanica.com said.— Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

In the early days of the Internet, computer scientist Scott Fahlman ran into a problem on Carnegie Mellon University’s online bulletin boards.

People used the bulletin boards – a kind of primitive online forum – to chat about everything from lost belongings to parking at the Philadelphia university.