'Father of Emoticons' Says Emoji Are Ugly, Lack Creativity
Professor Scott Fahlman, a Carnegie Mellon computer scientist widely credited with creating the smiley emoticon, has spoken out against the graphic rendition of his beloved invention, calling it "ugly," and unimaginative.
In an interview conducted by Britian's The Independent in honor of the emoticon's 30th birthday, Fahlman took issue with the modern bastardization of the emotion conveyance he first proposed on the Carnegie Mellon online message board in 1982.
"I think they are ugly, and they ruin the challenge of trying to come up with a clever way to express emotions using standard keyboard characters," he told the publication.
Fahlman, who initially suggested the smiley could be used to indicate which messages were to be read as jokes, quickly tempered his indignation. "But perhaps that's just because I invented the other kind."
Looks like it's time someone introduced Prof. Fahlman to emojicons.
