Final answer:
Emoticons were first used before the advent of the world wide web in 1982.
Step-by-step explanation:
Emoticons were first used before the advent of the world wide web. The first documented use of emoticons as a form of digital communication can be traced back to 1982 when Scott Fahlman, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested using :-) and :-( to convey emotions in text-based messages.