History

• Emotes, better known as emoticons, first became popular with the advent of the Internet in the 1980s. Because emotions are harder to convey in text than over the phone (where voice tonality can be used to convey feelings), emotes became a popular way for people to convey emotions over email. Instant messaging brought emotes into the mainstream.
  
  

Cultural Influences

• Eastern and Western cultures differ in their use and stylization of emotes. While Western culture focuses more on the mouth when expressing emotions, Eastern cultures focus more on the eyes, and this is reflected in the form of their emotes.
  
  

Examples of Western Emotes

• Smile/Happy:
  : )
  :-]
  :D
  Frown/Sad:
  =(
  :-[
  Wink:
  ; )
  Sticking Tongue Out:
  : p
  Love/Heart:
  <3
  
  

Examples of Eastern Emotes

• Smile/Happy:
  (^_^)
  Shocked:
  (o.O)
  Wink:
  (^_~)
  Embarrassed:
  (*^.^*)
  Listening to Music on Headphones:
  d(^_^)b
  
  

Special Orientation

• Western emotes are mean to be viewed with ones head tilted towards the left and are "read" left to right. Eastern emotes do not usually require head tilting.