Abraham Lincoln supposedly used an emoticon in one of his speeches from 1862 (though there is debate about whether it was an accident or added by the typesetter), and the guy who is credited with officially inventing the emoticon was a Carnegie Mellon Comp Sci professor. In introducing it, he explained that it could help clarify sarcasm versus serious comments in digital communications.

Tone isn’t conveyed easily through the written word, sometimes an emoji helps to clarify how something is being said. 👍