[media-credit name=”Tom Lord/Staff” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]People do not use their faces like they used to. So much communication these days happens over email, instant messaging and texting. Because people share their thoughts and feelings through a messenger that does not easily convey tone or emotion, the generation raised by technology created a way to decipher the emotions behind the message. We call them emoticons.
This unorthodox way of communicating by using symbols is well-accepted in online chat rooms, text messages and personal emails. When it gets difficult to say, “I like you, but I don’t think this is going to work” via text message without hurting someone’s feelings, attaching a pathetically cheerful smiley-face at the end is an easy opt-out for those who would rather not spend the time crafting a more delicate message. The question is, do they belong in professional communication?
As Generation X begins to enter the workforce, its tech habits are spilling across the boundaries of personal and professional, but where is the line? When do emoticons stop being helpful and start making people look ridiculous, immature or just “too silly to be applying for this job.” Can a student include one in an email to a professor? Is it all right to put a classic smiley at the end of a signature line in a note to an employer?
The real question here is whether or not emoticons are necessary. Because emoticons are supposed to make up for what written communication fails to do they automatically imply that there is something lacking in the material they are inserted in. Through no fault of its own, the emoticon basically says, “The person who used me does not know how to express themselves and they will fail in the business world.”
For as long as there have been employers, there have been standards of writing that employers want to see. Quality communication has not changed. Quality takes work. It takes concentrated thought to craft a note that delivers tone and emotion properly. It takes more than a colondashparenthesis.
If Gen X wants to prove it can succeed in the future it needs to first prove that it can side-step the lazy habits of its peers and communicate on a professional level. Students need to step into the real world and leave the emoticons behind.