Emoticons (emotional icons) are used to compensate for the inability to convey voice inflections, facial expressions, and bodily gestures in written communication
Emoticons are ASCII (plain text) graphics. To read these, tilt your head to the left until the dots look like a pair of eyes. (BTW, the noses are optional.)
Linguist, Naomi Baron, predicts that abbreviations will replace emoticons and that electronic communication will grow increasingly cryptic as groups develop their own secret codes.