I had started using internet around 1998-99. Naturally being curious the first thing I did was to join the Yahoo chat rooms to interact with myriad of people from across the globe.

It took me sometime to getting used to the chat and net lingo such as “a/s/l”. I would get too many PMs asking me this direct question. While I had no idea as to what on earth that meant. Slowly and gradually I learned the things related to net chatting like the meaning of “a/s/l”,  “LoL”, the outrageous use of the letter “Z” with the words ending in “S” etc.

It was during chat I saw emoticons the first time. I was chatting with an American teenager so I asked him how he made these smileys. At that time PM windows used to be basic with very limited features. So as much as I remember there wasn’t any emoticon tab.

Emoticons are something I use a lot. In the cyber world where the entire communication is carried out through typed words; intent, meaning and tone could easily be misunderstood. These emoticons help understand the message in a better way. Especially if you are bent on pulling someone’s leg, you’ve got to use emoticons or else get ready for the consequences.

Sometime back I noticed that Gmail has also introduced two different sets of emoticons.

I want to know one thing. How can you type this :l I mean it’s the simple line but I don’t know how to type it. Anyone know about it:?:

PS: You can check it in the image next to “rolling eyes”.