Text speak or grammar speak?
By shelagh77
@shelagh77 (3643)
February 10, 2007 9:20pm CST
Do you find it more difficult to respond to posts which use abbreviated English, for example, plz, u, abt instead of please, you, about?
I know they make typing quicker by losing letters, but they don't make for very fluent reading, well, I don't think so anyway.
What do you think?
3 people like this
7 responses
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
23 Jun 07
Well, I should have known you would get annoyed lol. However, I don't know whether these people have becomes tired of getting no responses but there does seem to be a lot less txt tlk going on now lol.
1 person likes this
@shmeedia (1044)
• Canada
11 Feb 07
i really hate the abbreviated forms, and especially all the acronyms. i was having a conversation with someone online yesterday and we were both refering to our favorite band. we should both be experts at knowing their song titles, but i kept having to ask him what 'csfil' or 'itl' meant ;)
i am from the older internet generation, so my first abbreviation text-speak experience taught me words that are all but obsolete now. btw = by the way, k-board = keyboard etc. i've had to train myself to not use these words coz the younger internet users have no idea what i'm talking about :)
i have learnt to incorporate lol, lmao and such, but i rarely use 'u' or 'plz' ror any of the newfangled ones. the one that really stumps me is 'pwned', as in 'that pwns'...what the heck does that even MEAN!?
i used to work for a service that helps deaf and hard of hearing people communicate over the phone by way of the internet, and one of the key elements to keeping such a job, was being able to type quickly, verbatim, without using any abbreviations. typos were looked down upon, and we always had to correct them after the fact, but at least it was acceptable as human error. typing 'bcz' or 'plz' or 'c-u' was absolutely innacceptable! :)
so maybe i am old school, but i prefer typing out the full word. i am a quick typer anyways, so it doesn't take much more time for me to write out 'because' rather than 'bcz' or 'b/c' ;)
1 person likes this
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
12 Feb 07
Yes, we are both old school lol. I am not being aloof towards those who use the text abbreviations, I just think that they restrict the replies, because some people won't be able to work out what on earth the post is about and will move onto the next discussion, and at the end it is the person who posts using these abbreviations who will lose out, which is quite sad. They take the time and trouble to post and a lot of people don't understand them.
Glad to have someone else old school agree with me, because I fear we are rather in the minority!
Thank you again for this post.
1 person likes this
@shmeedia (1044)
• Canada
13 Feb 07
lol, then i guess i served a purpose :D
glad to be of help!
and yes, there are some teas that have grapey nuances....some flowery, others more nutty....one of my favorite teas actually tastes a bit of chocolate and chestnuts (it's a white tea that is quite hard to find).
YUM
@shmeedia (1044)
• Canada
13 Feb 07
oh ARGH!!!!! sorry for this completely irrelevant post. i had 2 mylot discussions open in different windows, and when i hit 'submit' the response got posted to the wrong discussion :(
what i WANTED to say here was yes it's nice to find people who are still fond of their old school roots :)
1 person likes this
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
12 Feb 07
Exactly Rainbow. I think the people who use the abbreviations are losing out on replies. Judging by some of the replies to abbreviated text posts, many of our second language friends just post their own thing in retaliation, as they rarely bear any resemblance to what was asked lol.
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
11 Feb 07
That is good for you, you are bilingual lol.
I must be an old fogey, as I really don't like it during discussions, as to me it is not good English, as I say, fogey to the core.
@1983tyler (507)
• United States
11 Feb 07
Using abbreviated English may be easier to type, but if the reader doesn't understand the abbreviations, it makes it very difficult to follow the idea.
1 person likes this
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
12 Feb 07
Is it easier to type? If you make a typo in an abbreviation, who understands it lolol. Or do some of the typos change the word altogether, even more lolol.
I was just wondering if the people who use the abbreviations are losing out because people can not understand them. Maybe I am also a bit biased because I have been trying to drum these abbreviations out of the mails from my niece and nephew for the last several years, in the interests of improving their job prospects.
Little horrors use them even more now, trying to make the whole mail full of abbreviations lol.
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
13 Feb 07
Well, have pity on all of us old dears who are stuck in our ways, and try to keep the posts close enough to whole words so that we can follow them lol. I need a translator for some of the more unusual abbreviations :-)
1 person likes this
@shelagh77 (3643)
•
11 Feb 07
hmmm that isn't quite what I meant, but that is quite a story!
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