Dec 06 2008
emoticon nails
Although antecedents of the emoticon can be traced back to the late nineteenth century, the emoticon as we know it was invented by Scott Fahlman on 19th September, 1982. Within two months people were getting … creative with them.
The creatures have so far largely been confined to online (though my Nokia phone has an entire set of them available for texting if you press the star key twice). I have seen one used in print in earnest precisely once, in 1999, and that was in music journalism, which hardly counts as writing.
Nails, however, are just getting silly. Not that that’s a reason not to do something. You could use them to take particular care which finger you raise at someone.
Of course, some may go just a bit far.
Photo: “Emoticon Nails” by Lu_Lu, taken 8 November 2008 on a Canon Digital Ixus 860 IS. CC by 2.0.
