Standardization for emoticon direction, discuss

EvanKeel

I don't know that this is really a debate, but every time I see (: instead of I get thrown for a loop for a split second. Apparently cultural variation is not limited to phoneme and morpheme choices.

auroranflash

:b

fbmandy55

I have never seen one backwards

mommared53

Maybe (: is for left handed people and is for right handed people. Guess which one I am. :laugh:

macpatti

My response was going to be that's how left handed people draw it.

EvanKeel

But does anyone use emoticons outside of typed speech? Like would anyone actually ever write one out? I would think left-handed people would write in the same direction as right-handed people do because we both read and understand language when read from left to right (at least for English).

auroranflash

I write them on my post-it notes at times, but I deal with paperwork all day and it's just about the only joy I get.

Maybe (: people are from Japan.

k8blujay2

Maybe (: is for left handed people and is for right handed people. Guess which one I am. :laugh:

Nope... because I'm left handed and I type my emoticons like this :-p

k8blujay2

I write them on my post-it notes at times, but I deal with paperwork all day and it's just about the only joy I get.

Maybe (: people are from Japan.

Nah... if it were a Japanese person then they most likely would type them more elaborately... o.0

k8blujay2

Honestly, I think it has to do with how we write culturally... I get thrown for a loop when they are "backwards" too..

macpatti

I asked my husband, who is a lefty, how he would type a smiley. His initial reply was, "I never would", but I told him I was conducting an experiment. His ended up looking like this

(:

KimmyEB

I'm left-handed, and I write them like this:

I hate seeing them like this: (:

Probably because the few people I personally know that do type them like that are pretentious *kitten*.