Of course the emoticons are stupid, thats the whole point isn't it? So dumb they're funny. They've just been over used to the point that they aren't funny any more. I don't even think the problem is the emoticons at all. If people want to over use them than what ever, those people are annoying, leave it at that. Tell them if you must but quite a lot of other people don't care about it, and quite honestly, I find the complaining more annoying. I don't think the animation has caused nearly as much problems as peoples complaining about it has.
It reminds me of prohibition, when alchohol was banned, it caused more crime than it stopped. Same with people complaining about violent video games today, places are starting to ban them, and thats only making more people upset.... The responsibility lies with individuals to be intelligent about how things are used whether it's alchohol, giving children violent games, or stupid emoticons. Complaining about it only upsets more people.