If I were to speculate, I'd say RoryGlyphic is younger than you.
hahahahahahhaha. Yeee. I also love emoticons. We actually started out with a gif messenger (glyphic) because we loved texting with emoticons/gifs so much.
I don't agree, some of the people that use emoticons all the time are actually older than 40.
In conversation in Facebook, Skype, et al, they usually have a number of smiley faces.
Some people use them all the time. And they don't have to be graphics, they can be done in text too. :]