Hi.  My name is.  Uh.  Erika.  YEAH ^_^ <--- See that smiley?  That is an online face.  They are used a lot online.  Er, duh. =P  <--- That's another online face.  But, for these kinds of faces, you have to tilt your head to the left, and you'll see the face.  The "=" (equal sign) is the eyes, and the "P" (the letter "P") is the mouth, making a tongue come out.  If you can understand the expression, you'll understand why people added that face to their words, to make their meaning a little more clear.  Like if someone said: "you idiot!", if you're really dense and not following the conversation, you might take that as an offense.  BUT, if they add the "=P" face next to it, IT MEANS THEY'RE KIDDING STUPID!!!!!!!  =P  <--- See, there's another example.  From now on, I'm going to stop putting quotations (") around the faces, because now, when you see them, you should be able to tell what it is.

          Everybody uses these around the world... where they have computers and stuff.  It's pretty easy to just create things with the keys on the keyboard.  The most creative thing made in the history of chat is using faces over the internet.  People aren't being graded for their vocabulary or grammar, so they can't help but make their chat more fun.  Also, besides using faces, people can do like an RPG.  When you want to do actions in the online conversation, you'd say something like: "eats a nacho".  But if you just said "eats a nacho", (without quotations) it would seem kind of weird.  That's why you put these around that text: *eats a nacho*, people can understand that you just made an action in the conversation.  Those little symbols can be done when you hold down shift and press 8.  It's really simple.  Here, I'll do a demonsration:

Kelly:  hey sall :D
Sally:  *waves!* sup?
Sally:  blahblahblahblah ^__^ *leaves*

                    Now that I've cleared that part up, I'll begin on the most fun part of online conversation, the faces.  Like me, I chat with faces so much that I kind of have to add them practically every time I say something.  But you can't really use these when you're doing a school essay or something. (duh) Anyway, here's a list of the most popular faces used over internet chat.

^_^ or ^.^ or ^-^   Anime happy face

^_~ or ^.~ or ^-~  Wink for anything that requires a wink

^_<   "Hahaha" wink

^o^   "OH MY GOD" happiness

*_* or *.* or *-*   Being amazed, gazing at the whatever-ness

~_~ or ~-~ or ~.~   Stress, shame, pressure

e_e or e.e   Look at it closely, you’ll see that the "e"s are the eyes, and there’s a dot in them, looking to the left.  Well anyway this is a sarcastic look

T_T or T.T   "Ack", "Ugh", "Ogee"… uhhhh… just look at it and you’ll get it

u.u or u_u   Depression, sadness

O_O or o_o or o.o or O.O   Shock, amazed, "oh my god!!"

O.o or O_o   Confused, scared in a funny way, or "what the heck?"

X_x or X_X or x_x (ect.)   Knocked out, dead, or an expression of "eek!" or "ack!"

n.n or n_n   A smaller happy face

Don’t forget the faces that you have to tilt your head with.  And these, you can pretty much recognize.

=)   =D   ;D   ;)  X)   XD   X(   XP   =P   ;P  ;3  =3

There’s more.  But I’ve got to get to the little abbreviations.

I’ll start off with the really obvious ones… then… uh…. Yeah.

U = you

Y = why

R = are

Qt = cutie

O = oh

C = see

BRB = be right back

G2G = Got to go

Wth = What the heck (or…)

<3 = kiss, or love

lol = laughing out loud

rofl = rolling on floor laughing (there’s a lot more laughing abreves)

sk8 = skate

omg = oh my god

Sometimes people just like to play around with the way things are spelled.  Like, "music" to "m00s33k".  Heheh.

There’s a whole lot more.  People just like to use these online because they don’t like to type much, and, it’s fun! ^_^  Especially the faces.  They actually come in handy a lot. =3

(by the way... please don't change "rock" to "rawk" o_o;; )