Emoticón

Representación de una expresión facial mediante caracteres del teclado estándar, como :-) o :D, que precede a los emoji gráficos.

Emoticons ("emotion" + "icon") emerged in the early days of digital communication. Scott Fahlman proposed :-) and :-( on a Carnegie Mellon message board in 1982, though similar practices existed earlier.

Western emoticons are typically read sideways: :-) :D ;-) :'( etc. Japanese-style emoticons (kaomoji) are read straight-on: (^_^) (T_T) (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Many platforms auto-convert emoticons to graphical emoji (e.g., :) → 😊). While emoji have largely superseded emoticons in casual messaging, emoticons remain popular in plain-text contexts and for expressing nuances not covered by standard emoji.