There are more substantial reasons to support this.
Smileys work because they represent generic faces. That makes them adaptable. The idea is you end up recognizing the people you're communicating with behind those smileys.
For instance, if my girl texts me something and ends with :-), I can imagine her smile. With a green monster, sorry, I can't.
An abstract face works, it frees my imagination. A specific face doesn't, it constrains me.
"Smileys" as a pop culture meme would never have happened with green monsters. Nobody would adopt them. The only respectable smileys are the original yellow round face and the punctuation smileys used in old text messages. All the rest of the crazy stuff and weird, colorful, animated smileys used in Internet forums, etc., and now in Smartphones, are niche options of specific users. They should not be forced on anyone.
This is not just an issue of graphic preference, it's the actual smiling power that's at stake here... :-)
We even need to argue that text smileys need to be the default.
Even if I have the option in my phone to turn off green monsters, how can I safely smile to someone via text message when I suspect my smile will be turned into a green monster when it reaches my friend? Argh.
Tinkering with what I communicate is not right. Even if it is just tinkering with details. The art of Text messaging is very much about details.
Anonymous
There are more substantial reasons to support this.
Smileys work because they represent generic faces. That makes them adaptable. The idea is you end up recognizing the people you're communicating with behind those smileys.
For instance, if my girl texts me something and ends with :-), I can imagine her smile. With a green monster, sorry, I can't.
An abstract face works, it frees my imagination. A specific face doesn't, it constrains me.
"Smileys" as a pop culture meme would never have happened with green monsters. Nobody would adopt them. The only respectable smileys are the original yellow round face and the punctuation smileys used in old text messages. All the rest of the crazy stuff and weird, colorful, animated smileys used in Internet forums, etc., and now in Smartphones, are niche options of specific users. They should not be forced on anyone.
This is not just an issue of graphic preference, it's the actual smiling power that's at stake here... :-)
We even need to argue that text smileys need to be the default.
Even if I have the option in my phone to turn off green monsters, how can I safely smile to someone via text message when I suspect my smile will be turned into a green monster when it reaches my friend? Argh.
Tinkering with what I communicate is not right. Even if it is just tinkering with details. The art of Text messaging is very much about details.