Smileys play an important role in Internet-based conversations as well as mobile text messaging. The term “smiley” may refer to only the dot and curve smiling face or to all emoticons in general. Smileys have been in use in popular culture, advertising and media since the 1850′s, but its use in cyberspace as symbols for emotion began in the 1980′s.
Purpose of Smileys
In face-to-face conversations, we use facial expressions to complement dialogue and show our feelings. Without these facial expressions, what we say could be misinterpreted. When you tell a joke, drop a hint or make a sarcastic remark, the look on your face and the tone of your voice help make it clear. But on the Internet where people chiefly use text to communicate, facial expression and tone of voice are often absent. Enter smileys. In place of real human faces, smileys can represent different emotions as needed. It could be a smile, a frown, a grin or a sleepy look. Whether we are talking about smileys on Facebook, or on Yahoo! Messenger or Hotmail, the purpose is always the same: to convey feeling and mood.
Evolution of Smileys
Emoticons for the Internet began as keyboard character combinations. When they came into standard use, corresponding graphic images were created to make them more attractive and easier to understand. Over the years, a great many emoticons have developed. There are now enough smileys to express a full spectrum of human emotions and intentions from happy to sad to confused to clownish. Even animals, objects and heavenly bodies now have emoticons to represent them. Unfortunately, since each program or website tends to develop its own emoticons, you might not find the same images everywhere, or if you do the keyboard shortcuts are different. For example, the Devil emoticon is written as (6) in Windows Live Messenger, as >:) in Yahoo! Messenger and 3:) among the emoticons for Facebook chat.
Meanings of Smileys
Many smileys have universally accepted meanings. For example, the 
is almost always a frown or a sad expression. The “crying” emoticons of course, mean unhappiness and being upset. But just as in real life, we can make similar expressions for a wide variety of emotions. We “smile” for different reasons in face to face chat, and so in virtual chat. When you regularly chat with others, you may find you develop your own custom glossary of symbols. A smiley with a tongue can mean disgust, or appetite, or flirtation. It all depends on you and the people you talk to. Just like people, emoticons can be subtle and flexible.