~

I’ve often wondered what the function of the squiggly key is. I mean, every day I see a little ~ staring up at me longingly from my keyboard, and I’ve never even bothered to ask someone what it does. Maybe you know. Maybe you think I’m an ignorant fool for not knowing. Maybe this is much like me not knowing who Cameron Diaz is, the name is awfully familiar but I can’t put a face to it. I’m thinking there must be some people out there, however, who have no idea what the ~ does, so here is some reliable Wikipedia knowledge on the ~’s function:

- Is called a ‘tilde’ and not a ‘squiggly key.’
- Can be used to mark the omission of a word or the abbreviation of a word.
- “Has acquired a number of other uses as a diacritic mark or a character in its own right” (Wikipedia) which I presume means squiggly admirers stood out on the street holding signs and chanting ‘equal rights for squiggly keys.’ Which must have lead to some kind of compromise involving squiggly’s becoming their own little characters.
- Also used in maths to symbolise ‘to,’ ‘and greater’ and ‘equivalence.’
- It also has some other functions like in economics and for computer stuff.
Examples: 12~15 (12 to 15), 100~ (100 and great), x~y (x is equivalent to y.)

So, possibly that bored you a bit, but I thought you should know its actual function before I introduce the squiggly key’s new and improved role. I think we should use this neglected button as a symbol of sarcasm. For example: what are you talking about Luna!? I always comment your blog ~.

This will allow internet users to more openly use sarcasm while talking on MSN or even just sending an email, because they won’t have to worry about the recipient not picking up their sarcasm. For example: yeah, I thought Bruno was great ~. If there was no squiggly symbol then the person may reply: you liked it too! We should go see it again together! This will just be awkward when the Bruno hater has to explain that they were actually being sarcastic. Of course, in the first place they could have said: I didn’t like Bruno much at all. But that covers their actual personality because in reality they would have used a sarcastic tone to express their dislike.

I know it will be a near impossible task to get the whole world in on the new squiggly function, but if we start with the 3 (if I’m lucky) people who read this post then that’s one step closer to ~ = sarcasm, success!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde#Tilde_with_keyboards