Animated smileys and emoticons can really make the difference between a blend IM or Email conversation and a truly meaningful one. The limitations of the online world of today are such that even though we have progresses quite a lot - it is still mainly a world of text. You say things, and the things you say are supposed to represent your feelings and emotions. This a far inferior way of expressing yourself, compared to the behaviors that you use in the real world, when you use your body language, facial expressions, tone of voice etc.

How can you overcome this online difficulty?

You need to reinvent your online personality - be more colorful, and use extra measures to make sure that your are being heard and understood!

Use happy smileys, angry smileys or even crying smileys - just to show what you truly feel. It will make your conversation much more powerful. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. A smiley may be worth just a little more...

Things sometimes sound a bit wrong when they are said, or rather written, textually. Imagine yourself saying to someone the following sentences:

• You are so ugly! 
• I really hate you!
• Can't stand ya!
• Let's run off to Vegas and get married
• He's the smartest man I know
  

Obviously you might actually mean to say these things, but sometimes - not really. You are just trying to show your wits, to be sarcastic or just express the inner-cynic inside you.

A smiley or a good emoticon can really show people where you stand on things, and what do you really mean.

So how do I do that? Simple, just use one of the countless sarcastic smileys available online. This will make sure you sound just right, and that you are not misinterpreted.

You can also call this point - Make things sound right.

You know how sometimes you say something online and you immediately regret it? It's very hard to erase the conversation, or 'undo' a sent email, after you have pressed the 'send' button. What can you do - say something or use a cute graphic to make sure the other party understands you correctly. Well, they probably do understand you correctly - they just need to re-understand it now that's you blew it...

Correct a bad impression by sending a cute smiley - a rose, an apology, a wink to make sure you are understood correctly, or just a big smile. This can really make the difference between a conversation that's going the wrong way, and a joke in the middle of a good chat.

And sometimes you are truly angry. Words aren't only a barrier when it comes to positive emotions - they can be less effective also when you are trying to show your worst, or dark side, to someone. A few examples of when angry-devil smileys can be effective:

• Just caught your girlfriend flirting online
• A Troll is spamming a chat room
• Someone just called you a liar
• You caught someone in a big fat lie
• Someone is so full himself he is about to explode
• Someone expresses views that are so narrow-minded, fascist (or even worst)

Any of these happened to you? Next time - use a smiley! Show this evil chat partner of yours the finger, hit him in the head, or just slap him in the face. You will surely feel better about yourself - and if there are other conversation partners or people in the chat room - they will both appreciate your work and enjoy a good laugh!

It's not easy to find stuff to talk about online, and a graphic stimulator (this can be read wrong, right? :) ) might help.

Why not throw a cow at someone? Maybe use a psycho smiley? or a chef smiley? There are countless of cute smileys online - and using them can truly show your unique and colorful character!

Very commonly used, but a lot of people really miss good resources for finding more and more of these beautiful symbols. In the following paragraphs I want to give a few examples to some of the more fun, beautiful ASCII emoticons, that not many people are aware of:

• @>--;-- - a beautiful rose
• 0:-) - Angel
• #-) - Blinking
• *<<<<+ - Christmas Tree
• }=^{|~ - Devil
• <")))>< - Fish
• |___| - Happy
• #;-) - Tangled Hair
• :-* - Kiss
• :-9 - Licking your lips

Have you noticed? Some text smileys and emoticons are read horizontally, while others are read vertically. How can you tell? You actually can't. Just try to twist your head, and see if the smiley makes sense!