Communicating on social networks allows people to express ideas, opinions and feelings with an openness and frankness to the masses in a quick, efficient way. Sometimes it takes too long to type out what you are trying to convey. This has always been the case with Internet chatting, instant messaging and email. To convey a message faster, people began using emoticons and smileys. This helps people create a clear message when using social networks like Facebook and MySpace without the misunderstandings created from the lack of tone and expression of a voice, or signals given out by body language.

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This is why sites like Facebook and MySpace support smileys, also known as emoticons. In the beginning, users would have to make combinations of characters and symbols to create expressions like . People would need to have a little imagination to see what it represents. As this form of expression of using smiley and emoticon became more common and popular, most social network sites, instant messenger programs, and writing software would automatically take these characters/symbols and convert them into graphics of faces showing the expressions. When a users type an emoticon or smiley expression using specific symbol, the program or website they are using will automatically recognizes it and will replace the text with the appropriate graphic.

How does one post a Smiley or Emoticon to a social network like Facebook or MySpace?

If you haven’t chatted much on Facebook, MySpace, or any other social network sites, but have seen others using smiley and always wonder how you can do this, its actually pretty easy.

1. Click the name of a friend on your Facebook chat friends list. Make sure the green light is on so the other person is online.

2. Type a message in the message box.

3. Find the symbols for the emoticons on the keyboard.

4. Enter the characters for the emoticon you want to use.

5. Click Enter.

Another way to share smilies or emoticons on social networks like Facebook would be to use a Smiley/Emoticon application. There are a few good ones like Gummibuddies, Emotions, and Smileys.