The Evolution of Digital Feelings: From Emoticons to Free Smiley Animated Gifs

One of the greatest things about the Internet is how it allows people from all over the world to communicate with one another that would otherwise be unable to do so. However as with most things in life the Internet does have its own limitations. Since most of the communication which is online is in text form, it is often presented without any way of knowing how the person actually feels at the time of composition. Within this article, I intend to take you by the hand and walk with you through the evolution of some of the most widely known and beloved internet denizens, the Free smiley animated gifs.

For many years, general internet users had little way of conveying their emotions within their emails and web pages. Sure there are lots of web sites which are now offering videos to their visitors, but that was not always the case. The majority of webmasters had very little to work with, just the alphanumeric characters which you see on your keyboard.

The very first way Internet users conveyed their feelings was with the use of emoticons. Yes, emoticons. Those cute little smiley faces made from the combination of a few alphanumeric characters. Emoticons have been used in email communications and on web pages almost as long as they have been around themselves. As long as people communicate via text, it is not very likely that these little fellows will disappear any time soon.

After the use of emoticons, the next evolution was the common gif smiley. You know the cute little yellow guys that are used in most instant messaging programs. These static smilies have been incorporated into online software such as bulletin boards, online forums and blogging software. The use of smilies has only gained in popularity, and some individuals collect them as they would any offline tangible item, taking pride in how many they can categorize and stuff onto a webpage.

As with all things, the static gif smiley was destined to undergo change, and so it did. Although it was cool to have a smiley on the page staring out at visitors with a big happy grin, wouldn’t it be great if he were waving too?

Smiley animated gifs became the next generation of emotional indicators to take up residence on web pages across the internet. These new smiley animated gifs were actually a series of static gifs which were merged into a loop to create a short cartoon filled with motion.

With each new web technology that comes about, you can be sure that the beloved animated smiley gif will undergo yet another incarnation to once again steal our hearts.