Emoticons Are Changing Our Brains!

Technology is changing, and more and more people are communicating with emoticons. But are these emoticons changing our brains? Anthony reports on an interesting new study that shows how we're starting to perceive emoticons as real facial expressions.

Read More:
Emoticons in Mind: An Event-Related Potential Study
"It is now common practice, in digital communication, to use the character combination :-), known as an emoticon, to indicate a smiling face."

Pareidolia: Seeing Faces in Unusual Places
"To some observers, it looked like an ordinary grilled cheese sandwich."

Pareidolia on Reddit

Pareidolia
"There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious."

Happy Days: Human Brain Now Registers Smiley Face Emoticon As Real Facial Expression
"Cultural use of emoticons has managed to reprogramme people's brains to respond as if were a real human face, new research found."

Occipito Temporal Sulcus
"The Occipito Temporal Sulcus is the 4th temporal sulcus running antero posteriorly."

Emoticon Language is 'Shaping the Brain'
"Emoticons such as smiley faces are a new language that is changing our brain, according to new Australian research published in the journal Social Neuroscience."

Face Recognition by Humans: Nineteen Results All Computer Vision Researchers Should Know About
"Increased knowledge about the ways people recognize each other may help to
guide efforts to develop practical automatic face-recognition systems."

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[UPlayNetwork]

I love seeing emoticons, it helps when you can't see the person, it's a great alternative to imagine how they feel ;-)

[Virtually_Char]

What about the emoticons that have to be writen backwards, such as "D:" and "c:"

[AvitalShtap]

I hate when people give emoticons noses. That ruins their cuteness. And they suddenly remind me of 2005 questions from Yahoo Answers. 
:-) :-)
_ew_

[ShawnBean]

That's pretty cool!  We actually are able to watch the process of creating an entirely new means of symbolic communication, both at the cultural level and at the neurological level.  It will be most intriguing to see what light this sheds on the roots of language, among other things.  (And, just to drive Anthony nuts, I'm not going to sign off with the emoticon he's expecting; it will be almost as bad as if I stopped typing this message in mid-

[mollyd]

if someone types an emoticon backwards i always get  it. i dont understand because its just the exact same thing. that would be like looking at a picture of a person upside down but not knowing that it is a person?

[weylin]

does anyone else get strangely pissed off at hyphen noses and backward smilies? It's almost... insulting, but I can't explain why.

[Dantehavok]

The one that really confused me at first is <3
I thought it was supposed to represent balls

[Aderon]

I have a theory on why we see the :)'s before the (:'s. it has to do with the fact that we read left to right, we see the :'s first then the )'s so we're essentially reading the face from the top down which makes it more recognizable as our brains are already looking for a face by the time we see the )'s where as the smileys that look like (: are harder to catch as we see the ('s as the start of something like this "her hair (which was a lovely shade of brown) flowed in the wind effortlessly" so it's our recognition of characters taking the first step instead of paredolia. at least that's my theory.

[backonlazer]

My brother sometimes tries to make expressions like the emoticons. It's so annoying
>:(
(He's really bad at it)

Oh, and I hate emoticons with a nose like this ---> :-)
Is it just me?

[SpaceBabyInSpace]

I know a lot of people myself included now use emoticons as a way of contextualizing a conversation, as a means of trying to comprehend the others real life feelings. It can have quite an adverse effect however if say that person has anxiety.

[Danny]

I hate when people use an emoticon at the end of every message they send.

[Azurren]

Huh.. I recognised the backwards (-: face as a "face" immediately
But maybe it's because the D: face is one of my favourites!
_I very rarely use noses in my emoticons though.. Does anyone?_

[Atomicgamer]

I see a face on the shelf to the right at 2:24

[FlexMcCool]

So psychologically emoticons combine the qualities of written language and pareidolia to create something new. I learned something today. :D

[zombaaa]

): That smiley is rarely used, and might indeed take a bit longer to recognize, but D: is more used as an actual smiley, but does this one also take longer or the same time as normal smileys?

[livvielov]

I don't like the dash as a nose not sure why though

[ghostofdayinperson]

Haha the pic of doors and two windows of that brick building was so cute :/ 

[angeldude]

C: drives me insane, why can't people just use :) or :D ?

[denzal]

For a while, I always thought :< was an angry face until I looked it up on Urban Dictionary. I don't see :@ at all...

[JonathanDtz]

You know, besides seeing faces on walls and other stuff, emoticons made me start to NEED them sometimes to notice the humor state of another person :S