In "Suggesting the Smiley," Scott Fahlman presents a brief yet momentous communication that has had a lasting impact on digital interaction. This simple proposition, made in a 1982 message on an online bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University, marks the inception of the first emoticons—the smiley :) and its counterpart, the frown :(. Fahlman's suggestion was a practical solution to a pressing issue in the nascent days of online communication: the difficulty of conveying tone and emotion through text.