Emoting

Something very disturbing has happened to me here in China: I've started using emoticons. I mean everywhere. Email, instant messages, text messages....I suddenly feel that a message is incomplete if it's not adorned with a little smiley or frowny or winky face.

I blame China, 100%

I was never like this before I came here.

I tell this to Paul, a coworker of mine, another one of our 'foreign experts'. He's British, middle-aged, professorial. I thought he was standoffish at first, then realized he was just sort of awkward in that distinctly British, professorial way. He exudes a slight air of "What the hell am I doing working in this place," but no more than the rest of us.

He says he spends most of his monthly paycheck on books. He says he has over 600 books in his apartment. He's always reading something at his desk like Kafka or Pynchon or the collected works of Elizabeth Bishop.

He tells me that he, too, has caught the insidious emoticon virus. He tells me this on MSN, in an instant message. And then he attaches a blinking little smiley face.

Who have we become.