A Pittsburgh professor’s impact that went beyond words

Chances are you’ve sent or received an emoji more than once in your life. This relatively new form of communication, which first appeared on phones in 2008, can actually be traced back to Pittsburgh. 

In 1982, Carnegie Mellon professor Dr. Scott Fahlman invented emoticons (the primal form of emojis) when he sent a message containing 🙂 on the college’s bulletin board system. Emoticons grew in popularity during the 1990s, and it’s possible that without Dr. Fahlman, we would still be restricted to words when wanting to express our anger or excitement about something.

You can see his original message here. 

– Robert Clark, WordWrite