In the world of text messaging, emailing, instant messaging, blogging, journals, and all the other forms of e-communication, the smiley is a common form of expression. Behind a keyboard, emotional exchange loses its value almost entirely, so there needed to be some way to exchange reactions and emotions via an emotionless form of communication. The smiley came to be the answer.

Of all the variations of smileys out there, one can truly be considered the “all-purpose” smiley: the tongue face ( =P ). It can come off as happy, jokingly, disturbed, etc. This smiley can also let you get away with saying just about anything you want.

With the tongue face, you can really say just about anything you want and get away with it. It creates an air of uncertainty in the mind of the reader about if you were serious or not, and they will default to thinking you were just kidding. Next time you are chatting with someone, say something midly hurtful and bust out a tongue face. I will bet a small portion of my salary that the response is in the realm of “lol” or “haha” or some such equally neutral response.

Psychologically speaking, people want to believe that others are inheritly good-natured… especially those we are familiar enough with converse with and joke with. Thus, when someone says something that is hurtful but throws down a tongue face, we don’t know what to make of it. “Maybe they were just kidding… yea… thats it.” However, this can only go so far. If you say something overtly invasive and it cuts deep, the tongue face will NOT get you out of it. For instance, calling a girl fat or ugly is not likely to be reprieved with a tongue face.. prepare for a fight.