Basic Emoticons

[ysabetwordsmith]

There are emoticons for all kinds of feelings and other situations.  It occurred to me that, as people spend more time communicating through text media, part of what's driving the emoticon boom is a need to express at least the basic emotions.  So that got me wondering if there are, in fact, emoticons for all of those.  Learn them and you have the primary colors of the human heart.

1) Anger
>:(   
>_<

2) Fear
O_O 
<8-O

3) Disgust
:P
>:p

4) Contempt
:/
:S
0_o

5) Joy
:)
:D
^_^

6) Sadness
:(
:'(

7) Surprise
:O
8-0

Comments

[satsuma]

Since there's such a large variety of emoji and emoticons, which ones people use can also serve a second purpose of serving as internet mannerisms to convey identity (this isn't quite the right word?), somewhat like how your username/profile picture/blog theme (online appearance, basically) could be considered analogous to your offline choices with clothing and grooming

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's a good point.