How do you use smileys and emoticons?

I love them. :)
In fact, recently the keyboard on my laptop broke (I’m on the PC now), and it makes it next to impossible for me to make emoticons. I didn’t realise how dependent I was on them until I couldn’t use them. Conversational text is so easy to misinterpret, tones can be read that weren’t intended, and emoticons help to alleviate some of that.

One thing you will want to note, is that a lot of emoticon useage is pure deception. Emoticons do have a useful function, but I think that for the most part they are used to lie and manipulate.

If I am in a chat with someone, and I use “lol” (Not and emoticon I know) It nearly always means “Message recieved” or “thats not funny, but I’m bored so say something else”.

It is very hard to hide real emotion, but with emoticons you never know.

They are very useful, specially for denoting sarcasm, jokes, friendly insults, and other things. Without them I suspect there would be a lot more misscommunication.

I use them a fair bit my self, but only when in live and fast paced situations. e.g. chat rooms, mmorpg and so on.

All the emoticons that i use are:

:)
:O
XD
:P
:S

I dont really use many others.

I use smileys for two reasons. One is when I feel affection for the person. The other is when I think my words might be misperceived as harsh, and I want to be sure the receiver knows I say it with positive thoughts, not harshly. Written communication can be difficult to know the tone of the message, so the smiley reinforces the sentiment. Sometimes I add a frown for sad occasions. Those are the only two I use.

As little as possible.

I used to abuse them (along with exclamation points!!) to the point of meaningless saturation. I weaned myself off almost entirely unless I really want to indicate that I am smiling at something said by someone else.
I only use :-) and XD
very sparingly.

I love them and don’t think they can be overused. I use them because I wish the person I’m chatting with could actually see the smile or frown on my face when I answer to them.;-)
Those moving emoticons are a little bit much and kind of annoying.

I only use : – ) (I had to put spaces in there so it wouldn’t do the cross out) and the he wink ;-) probably too much and only on posts, but I like to try to make sure people know when I’m kidding.

I use a few as a kind of sign off signature :¬)
Sometimes though XD they have a ;¬} habit :¬( of popping up :¬p all over the =0) place!!

I think you will really like this question.

Smiles somewhat often ^^

I only use ;)
It’s to signal that I’m joking as it can be hard to detect humour on the interwebs.

I don’t really like most of them. I like the basic ones, that’s it. :) :( :T :P/:p (that means sticking tongue out…) I suppose ;) is ok, too, though I never use it because it is very suggestive. I hate XD >< – __ – (spaced so I didn’t toggle strikethrough) ^^ etc.
:S is ok too I guess…but I prefer :T

I’m actually trying to use them more, especially the basic ones, because I think it’s better to be mildly annoying for a second than create a shitstorm because people couldn’t tell I was joking when I called them dumb toads.

I like them to express an emotion without writing a whole damn sentence. It’s a reaction to what I said or what my correspondent said. I only use about three or four. Happy, sad, tongue in cheek and big smile.

I use them as doorstops.

I think it will be tough enough to do a theseis on it to be honest, it seems very simplistic,
;) = you know what I mean, I’m only joking, wink wink…
:)= don’t mean to offend, I’m only joking, don’t you think…
:(= this makes me sad

I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but beyond this I’d have little else to say about it, you know?

I usually only use them when texting some girl I fancy, or am just too lazy to type anything better.

For me:

;-) Wink, which usually means that I’m not being serious, or attempting to be subtle.

:-) Smile.

;-p Winking with a goofy expression.

:-p Standard goofiness.

:-( Sadness.

☺Character Map smile.

☼ I just had a “bright” ( usually=1 candela or the amount of light emitted by a glow-in-the-dark bacterium ;-) ) idea.

♥ Love.

(ºuº) My eyes are fully open and I have no mouth, or I’m paying full attention with anatomically imposed silence.

I only use :) and :(. The smile is the one I use the most and it’s to emphasise that I’m joking/happy/not intending to offend etc. Especially when I’m saying something that’s slightly teasing.

I don’t like to use them often, but when I do it is pretty much limited to :| to show indifference and >:| to show disapproval. I am too stubborn to use ಠ_ಠ

Oh wait. I just did. >:|

I try not to. And if something actually makes me laugh out loud, that’s what I write. (“Laugh out loud, man!”)