Emoticons are older than we think

Claims that Carnegie Mellon University invented the emoticon 25 years ago have been dismissed.

On her Urban Legend busting website Snopes.com, Barbara Mikkelson says that while Carnegie might have been first to use the : - ) online, it was not the first use.

She dug up a Reader’s Digest from May 1967 where it is described as being in use by someone’s Aunt Ev. That Reader’s Digest cites Ralph Reppert of Baltimore’s Sunday Sun as its source. It is not clear how Mikkelson got her paws on a 1967 copy of Reader Digest. Maybe she went to the dentist and found it in the waiting room.

Aunt Ev’s symbol is different. it is a -) “which means tongue in cheek”, however it is still an emoticon.