Please use real words! This isn't a chat room or IM
By foxyfire33
@foxyfire33 (10005)
United States
April 17, 2007 3:24pm CST
This is just MY pet peeve so if everyone else doesn't mind it then I'll try to be more tolerant too. I understand people who have a hard time spelling or are using English as a second language. That I don't have a problem with. What is annoying me is finding more and more posts written entirely in what I call "chat speak". An occasional LOL is fine but why is it necessary to type that way that all the time. I know there is a word limit here but it is huge so there is rarely any reason to need to shorten things that much. I can read it usually but I just don't feel like putting any effort into a response if they couldn't take the time to write things out normally. Am I the only one that feels this way?
(BTW, plz dont rit lik dis nemore i dont lik tryin 2 figur out wat u r sayin y dont u rit 4 real it wud b gr8 ty!)
3 people like this
6 responses
@w1z111 (985)
• United States
17 Apr 07
Haha...I'm with you, foxyfire33! I started a discussion the other day using this kind of 'chat-speak', to see what responses I'd get. "Chat-speak" is not hard to figure out, and, I dare say, it might even be an 'evolutionary step' in the English language...time will tell!
For now, though...I'd rather stay with the 'real thing', too.
3 people like this
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
17 Apr 07
Glad I'm not the only one! Once you get used to it, it isn't hard to figure out but I just don't think it is necessary here. It is definitely taking over the English language, I haven't decided if that's good or bad yet.
I'll stick with the real thing too!
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
17 Apr 07
And that is exactly what I was thinking too. I'm familiar enough with them to figure it out but I don't think it is fair to everyone who doesn't know what they mean. Thank you for responding here. Maybe more people will read your opinion and realize that they are making it hard on you.
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
18 Apr 07
Maybe it is partly because I am older, but I believe the main reason I detest chat speak is primarily because I love the English language. English is a very rich language and while it has many idiosyncrasies, it gives us enormous variety in usage without resorting to bad language or to chat speak.
I can see the need for abbreviation when messaging on a mobile phone, but I don't see why this should be continued in any other situation. I find it offensive. To a reasonable person, using chat speak is saying "You are not worth the extra time it takes to write this properly"
I must qualify what I have said by saying I fully understand the problems encountered here with people whose first language is not English. I have enormous respect for them and patience and will take time to understand what they are saying. If those who use chat speak thought about others, they would try to help our non-English speaking members by using correct wordage rather than confusing them further with chat speak.
Thanks for bringing this out so well in a discussion.
@tinamwhite (3252)
• United States
17 Apr 07
Hiya, Foxyfire.....I totally agree with you. It is difficult enough to read the misspelled words sometimes; without their take on "chat talk". And in this setting where people from all over the world are attempting to read and respond to these discussions...I am sure that some people have no idea at all what the initialling for words means. I had to read your last line 3-4 times to actually get the meaning for that sentence. YES, that can be very annoying.
Good topic, my friend.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
17 Apr 07
Hi Tina!
I'm used to reading it enough just from talking to 2 teenagers, a pre-teen and 2 younger ones that can't spell very good yet but you're right about all the other people here that can't read it easily. I think in this setting it's important to write things as clearly as possible for everyone that struggles with English.
I think it took me longer to write that last sentence than the rest of the post! Just imagine if I'd written the whole thing like that.
It's good to know I'm not the only one that finds it annoying, thanks for responding!
