Emoticons, Typographical Symbols and Abbreviations.

Emoticons: I have always thought of emoticons being a fun thing for texting my friends or something to lighten the mood.  I always saw it as being unprofessional and possibly even juvenile. I had never really thought about using them while chatting to someone over the internet, or texting someone I don't really know, to help with setting the mood for what I was trying to say. But the reading I have done this week has definitely made me see it in a different light.
I did not even realise there was so many of them. I have always stuck with the :-) (happy) , :-( (sad), ;-) (winking). I may have to learn more of these emoticons to use and see whether I can come up with ones of my own!
Typographical Symbols: This is something I have noticed I do a lot when texting, posting comments on face book etc. I think it helps set the mood to what I am saying.
Common ones that I use are:-
???? at the end of a sentence which basically means to me WTF? or "what the F!@#?".
...? is used to say "I'll let you make up your own mind".
I often also use xxx to close friends and family as kisses.
It would be interesting to see how other people would interpret these typographical symbols and whether they would use them in the same context or what other ones they use?
Abbreviations: Not one I use a lot. I use to all the time when I had my old cellphone but with my new one I use predictive text so it writes the word out in full and I only ever shorten a word if my phone wants to send more than one text.
I find it hard to interpret what some people have to say when they abbreviate words. I guess it is something that more of the younger generation do now a days, than when I was a teenager.
When I was at school it was really only those kids that wanted to be journalist that learnt any form of abbreviating words or short hand.
As for it being believed that cyber shorthand is widely understood, I can't help wondering that if it was, would I be able to not only understand it while reading it, but also be able to write it as well if it was? or is it just that I am behind the times and need to catch up?