Smiley Emoticon Celebrates 25th Birthday

So the “smiley”, AKA  “:)”, is 25 years old.  And we apparently have this cheesy nerd to thank for it. 

I, for one, am hopeful that this milestone can pass without a lot of fanfare being heaped on.  After all, it’s maybe one of the most overused expressions on the web (a close second to “lol”).  But some people love the little smiley guy. 

I don’t know what’s sillier to me, though… the fact that somebody documented the exact date and time that this emoticon was first used, or the fact that CNN wrote a whole article about it.  You can read the article here.