Smiley is no joke
Carnegie Mellon is the birthplace of the emoticon, a.k.a. Smiley. In 1982, Scott Fahlman, a research professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, was chatting in a CMU digital bulletin board when he realized there was a need to differentiate joke posts.
He never dreamed that his suggestion of a colon, hyphen and parentheses would have such a long-lasting, far-reaching impact on digital communications.
Fahlman’s original two emoticons — a smile and a frown — laid the groundwork for winking, crying and glasses-wearing icons, then eventually for emoji graphics. Smiley turns 50 in 2032.
