By eHow Internet Editor
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They're a great way to add pep to text or "humanize" an online communication, but the use of emoticons in web speech is sometimes controversial. Some argue for the use of these little "digital faces" as clarifying emotion, contending that words can also be misleading. But others think the emoticon visuals can be misleading in terms of the writer's emotion. Problems with misleading emoticons include characters that are too open to multi-use, and creating ASCII (common text) emoticons that are too complex. Stay away from "problem emoticons" by thinking about how you will use these little characters to express yourself on the web.
eHow Internet Editor