Down With The Ampersand

Interpersonal communication has evolved from face-to-face conversation to telephoning to texting. As it evolved, emotion was tossed aside by technology. Eye-to-eye contact and sympathetic facial expression went the way of the dodo when we progressed from face-to-face conversation to telephoning. We could roll our eyes and have a self-satisfied smirk when we telephoned, "Charlie, you really deserved that promotion that I got" and Charlie would be none the wiser.

The telephoning to texting step eliminated the fake sympathetic tone of voice as we texted, "Charlie, I'm sorry that Britney is going to the prom with someone else" as we chortled gleefully because Britney was going with us.

Interpersonal communications technology needs to add the personal touch. We need a quick and easy way to add emoticons to our texts. Charlie will feel a lot better about losing that promotion if we add the "sad face" :,-( but it takes three key strokes. Let's replace some of those rarely-used buttons on our keyboard with emoticons.

What's with that ^ above the 6? In scientific notation, it means "To the power of" as in 2^3 = 8. There are a lot more texters out there than scientists. Let's change ^ to "happy face" :-). We will wear out that key.

Then there's the ampersand sitting uselessly above the 7. Other than Abercrombie & Fitch or Barnes & Noble, who uses that? Everyone needs a "sad face" emoticon though. Down with the ampersand!

Let's go whole hog. Only old-timers on MS-DOS still use the "F" keys. There's twelve slots for more one-stroke, easy-to-use emoticons.

We may never return to face-to-face communication, but modifying the keyboard will put human emotion into texting.