Emoticons in Literature. The Future of Writing?

In this blog post we’ll mainly focus on the fundamental developments of emoticons and how they fit in the sphere of literature and address questions such as, “is it really literature if there’s emoticons in it?” The current digital age we live in brings along many new frontiers to be explored; including the implications technology has had on literature.
While there may be skeptics out there who don’t include literature pertaining emoticons to be ‘real’ literature, I disagree. Technology has advanced to the point where it’s incorporated into our daily lives even unknowingly, and with the continued developments many tasks of everyday life have become easier on us. While modern technology continues to escalate, it’s has shaped the way we communicate, share ideas, research topics, and write papers. (Which I’m currently doing as you’re reading this!) so how could it not influence the way we read? One example in American pop culture of literature that contains emoticons is a series titled TTYL, (slang for talk to you later) by Lauren Myracle. It’s mainly books for younger audiences, as I read the series when I was in middle school; nonetheless an entertaining and fun read. The books takes form of a continuous conversation between three high school girls through IM, or instant messaging. With the entire book basically being a IM conversation, it gives the reader a sense of inclusion and feeling of connection to the three characters. The reader doesn’t even know the official names of the girls until later on in the book, all you can see is their IM handles which are “SnowAngel”, “Mad Maddie”, and “Zoegirl”. They converse in slang and often use emoticons to respond to their friends messages, which is not often typical for books of this time. (It was published in 2004). You can see the format of the book below. Which I hope does not end up too blurry!



The series reminds me of the book we read in class together, TrainMan or Densha Otoko. It follows the same format of conversation messages throughout the book, which is also accessorized with the use of emoticons to display emotion to the reader.
The two novels are relevant to our class on the digital age as they demonstrate how specifically emoticons can shape the way we, as a society view and read literature. The involvement of emoticons within the literature text create a sense of digitalism, where the reader is able to feel the impact of modern technology incorporated into the book they are reading. I certainly do no think that the use of emoticons in literature is detrimental to the future of writing. To me, it shows how the writing community is able to adapt to the changes in our society within the last decade, and come through with beautiful works of literature that showcase all parts of modern society through writing.