Om emoticon of niet emoticon

In the early days of WhatsApp, I was vehemently against the use of emoticons. Well, vehemently against, I just found it rather childish. Communicating with pictures was something I did in kindergarten. Since grade 3 (in my time, the Neolithic era, grade 1), we have words to express our thoughts and can be just a bit more creative and nuanced in what we mean.

I am also now so nearsighted (47, hi hi) that I hardly see the difference between all the face emoticons. What exactly is the difference between the smiling emoticon or the smiling one that is tilted? I must also say that I find it quite unattractive when people only respond with emoticons. I know it's not gender-equal, but men (especially those of the more intelligent kind) who respond with a smiley wearing sunglasses or the smiley with a dangling tongue or, even worse, the winking smiley with a tilted head and sticking out tongue. Or the one with closed eyes and blushes on the cheeks. What exactly do you want to tell me?

I find it very nice when my girlfriend writes a kiss picture under a message, but she has then written six lines in correct Dutch with punctuation above it, with a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and a comma between two different verbs. I also do send a heart to this or that person, but actually only when I don't have time to come up with a sweet sentence myself. And the fact that my 10-year-old daughter does it is one thing, but I keep my distance from it. Even if it's just because I don't see the difference between all the smileys, tongues, and fists, and before I know it, I have sent a completely different message than I intended. And then it suddenly becomes a very different weekend.

So go ahead and express yourself if you like, but no parades in my messages.