Forum Language, Emotional content and Glyphs.

[Bella Fortuna]

We've be using written language for a very long time, after all, and it hasn't been much of a problem before.

Not much of a problem? Consider holy scriptures.

Just think how much better they'd have been with smileys...

1. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me :I-love-pork: , but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
2. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
3. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
4. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

[Dasein]

We've be using written language for a very long time, after all, and it hasn't been much of a problem before.

Not much of a problem? Consider holy scriptures.

Just think how much better they'd have been with smileys...

1. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me :I-love-pork: , but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
2. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
3. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
4. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

classic.

stay away from my donkeys!

[Bella Fortuna]

Unless I can watch...

[colubridae]

Over the last few years on forums I've noticed that to overcome the body language loss we have in normal conversation, internet forum's use of smilies and graphical emoticons has increased.
Could you now imagine the incidence of misunderstanding if we, say, banned the use of them for a week. Doesn't bare thinking about does it?
Anyway, where could this evolving language be going?
As the manipulation of data, video, audio and the like becomes easier with time*, could the ability to have a language which is more information dense, including whole memes in a short amount of relative time, be a possible direction?

Try reading 'Darwin's Radio' by Greg Bear. I enjoyed it.

Cover's your topic.