Emoticons (emotional icons) are used to compensate for the inability to convey voice inflections, facial expressions, and bodily gestures in written communication
This page was made to show all the types of smileys there are in the world (or close to it or not even close to it). There are a whole bunch of smileys listed below and a description of what it is.
Emoticons are ASCII (plain text) graphics. To read these, tilt your head to the left until the dots look like a pair of eyes. (BTW, the noses are optional.)