[Dr. Sivana]

I disagree; they should be used sparingly, as text does not contain inflection.

Men who can write can adapt the writing to compensate for lack of inflection. Charles Dickens did not use inflection. Mark Twain did not use inflection. (I will not cite Shakespeare as his writing was meant to be performed live.) Heck, if Jane Austin were writing today I do not believe she would avail herself of emojis, though I allow their use by women in the same way that they may dot their "i"s with hearts or use smiley faces in written communications.

I might make an exception for the Chinese, as their written language was originally ALL emojis.

[grey_whiskers]

Depends on both the format and the scope of the communication, and the topic, and the individual comment.

Novels provide more context and more room to tease out fine shades than one-line remarks.