Emoticons are visual cues formed from ordinary typographical symbols that when read sideways represent feelings or emotions. Because the use of electronic mail eliminates the visual cues such as head nodding, facial expressions, posture, and eye contact found in face-to-face conversation, electronic mail users often incorporate emoticons as visual cues to augment the meaning of textual messages. The goals of this paper are to: (1) discuss the utility of emoticons as visual cues from the perspective of traditional communication models; and (2) present and discuss research regarding the frequency and variety of emoticons in selected computer-mediated communication. The use of emoticons does not appear to be a high-use element of electronic mail communications, and high frequency emoticons are most likely the ones best understood, hence variety may be limited. Individual preference and creativity appear to influence the development of new emoticons, emoticon use, and the context within which they are interpreted. Factors which appear to influence emoticon use are: (1) level of communication formality; (2) cohesion of the communication group; (3) age; (4) gender; (5) difficulty of icon reproduction; (6) commonality of meaning; and (7) personal preference and experience. Eight figures illustrate data findings. (Contains nine references.) (MAS)