Our brains might be adapting to an emoticon-filled world by processing them differently.

Today emoticons are so pervasive that behavioral science has taken an active interest in how people use them. Among the evidence (recently surveyedby Roni Jacobson at the great new Science of Usblog), we find that women use more emoticons than men, that using emoticons too soon can creep out a new acquaintance, that deploying too many :-(‘s might makes us less popular, and that emoticon configuration varies by culture. While 🙂 indicates a smile to Americans, for instance, ^_^ does so for the Japanese.

– Eric Jaffe

via The Neuroscience Of Emoticons | Co.Design | business + design.