[jasond]

There's a big difference between using emoticons in the USA, versus overseas. I notice that in Europe (especially eastern europe, but even germany, sweden, etc), it's very acceptable to use emoticons, and not doing so can often be perceived like you're angry. Even guys will text other guys using smiley faces. So I'd definitely encourage emoticon usage there. However, in the USA, my experience has been that emoticon usage can be a turnoff for girls. The best texts seem to be short, aloof, lacking punctuation, and spiced up with some grammatical errors.