Members who can't read.

[ban-all-sheds]

Oh it should when the mistake is made by someone complaining about others unable to read....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Now your getting technical! ok CC so continuing from there are they merely images collated into our brains and interpreted within?

Yes.

there must be an absolute interpretation of what words mean

Not without context, as the ludicrous attempts by this and other fora to censor words in a context-free manner clearly demonstrate...

but why do we seperate pictures from words?

They aren't words, but they (smileys) are another class of symbols used in non-verbal communication, and their function is to convey meaning, or provide context, that would be provided by other methods when communicating verbally, such as tone or inflection or body language.

Personally i think words used properly can be almost absolute

Oh really?

And I chose that phrase very deliberately. Run through all the different ways you could voice those two words to someone, and by the way you did it convey genuine interest, friendly amusement, sarcastic contempt, hostility etc.

Oh really?

Oh really?

Oh really?

Oh really?

a picture can be interpreted in many different ways unless you aware beforehand what the picture is intended to portray or inform to another.

No more so than words, and often less so, although the proliferation of stylised smiley images does make it more difficult to be sure what someone means.

 

[Softus]

Loads of posters myself included tend to miss typo's , that shouldn't be grabbed on by others as an opportunity to pis*take.

Should be simply "grabbed", not "grabbed on".

 

[Softus]

yes i realise what the smileys mean by looking at them but i don't read them like text though I just look upon them as symbolic and not text.

Akcherly, smilies, if they are interpreted by the brain as a face, are recognised using an area of the brain that's especially adept at face recognition and expression interpretation.

Absence of this ability, or physical damage to the area that performs it, is called Prosopagnosia, aka Face-Blindness.

It must be true 'cos I saw it on Horizon on BBC2.

 

[toffee]

These points are all very interesting about silies and interpretation.

Can I make it more simple please.


Put your mouse arrow on the smiley and look carefully.

A word appears beside it.

Now, despite Paul Brown stating that otherwise, I can read.

When I see a smiley I assosciate it with the word that is written beside it.

It isnt difficult to do.

So, whilst we could get into the human equivalent of Pavlovs dogs and stimulation... There really is a simple answer here.

laughing

shocked

wink ( though that may take extra explanation depending on whether I direct it at Kendor or not. joking Kendor, )

 

[markie]

Toff


GO AND TAKE A COLD SHOWER....

 

[JulieL/B]

I think this is being taken too seriously!

As the written word is open to misinterpretation surely thats what the smilies are for - indicating when someone is joking, being sarcastic etc, etc.
I personally use smilies a lot to reinforce what I write and let people know the 'tone' of my posts.
Some people (Joe is a good example) never use smilies - therefore I find it difficult to truly interpret his written word, and in all fairness I could sometimes be 'getting him wrong' because of this...........well maybe

But, I also don't use smilies when replying to some people - which again reiterates mt thoughts!!

 

[mlb3c]

err duh....clear as mud

 

[Softus]

S'funny - I never, EVER, wink at people in person, and yet I use the darned winky face icon in postings sometimes. I guess this is because I think it lightens the moment when the dryness of my humour might be missed.

My favourite of all has to be this one:

 

[toffee]

softus, try winking now. can you do it with each eye?
does your nose wrinkle up on the same side as the eye that is winking?
now try just wrinkling up your nose as if in in distaste but just do it with one side.
Now try with the other side of your nose.
Can you wrinkle both sides of your nose up but independantly ?

I can only do it on the left side.

 

[Softus]

softus, try winking now. can you do it with each eye?

Yup. I'm quite at it, if I say so myself.

does your nose wrinkle up on the same side as the eye that is winking?

A little bit - just below the bridge, on the winking side.

now try just wrinkling up your nose as if in in distaste but just do it with one side.

Weird - I'm not so good at that.

Now try with the other side of your nose.
Can you wrinkle both sides of your nose up but independantly ?

I can only do it on the left side.

Me too - which makes us twins of the incompetent wrinkle-wink. Or something.

 

[toffee]

oh softus, Im imagining you doing it as I read your post....
Its harder than you think isnt it.
I tried again but I still cant. (mind you harder still when laughing)

 

[Softus]

How easily you melt the heart of a die-hard sour-puss, toffee. Your life must be full of joy with your ability to make people smile

 

[Brightness]

softus, try winking now. can you do it with each eye?
does your nose wrinkle up on the same side as the eye that is winking?
now try just wrinkling up your nose as if in in distaste but just do it with one side.
Now try with the other side of your nose.
Can you wrinkle both sides of your nose up but independantly ?

I can only do it on the left side.

I know you asked Softus but I can wink with each eye without wrinkling my nose and also wrinkle both sides of my nose independently. I can also touch my nose with my tongue - can you do this????

 

[toffee]

no, I cant.
Ha, Im sitting here trying, looking like goodness knows what but I can only get my tongue half way.
Can you roll your tongue? can you curl it up on each side?
I can!!

hubby can waggle his ears.
not that it has any use.. apart from perhaps making me laugh at the wrong moment