Is anyone else annoyed by "text speak" on Mylot?

@rosie_123 (6113)
April 24, 2007 11:46am CST
By text speak" of course, I mean things like CU instead of "see you", and Gr8 instead of "great"! I appreciate the need for it in sending SMS messages which is where it originated - after all, - each letter costs money, so condensing words to a minimum is financially sensible, and means you can say more in a message........ But do people eally need to use it in messages here in MyLot? Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but to me it smacks of bad-manners and laziness, that people want to earn money here without even bothering to string together a coherant sentence or two in their posts. So what do you think? Does it annoy you too? Or am I alone?
13 people like this
47 responses
• United States
24 Apr 07
It annoys me... but only to a certain degree. When we talk about people shortening words that weren't meant to be shortened... like "u" instead of "you" or "dat" instead of "that"... see, phrases like LoL or OMG, those I think are fine in the context of these discussions on myLot. They are necessarily meant to express important thoughts, more like reactions to the writing or the thing being said instead of expressing the actual idea. I mean, people who misspell words on purpose also irritate me. I will cop to it, I might have bad capitalization, but I feel that's almost a conversational thing... and the excessive use of ellipses... hehehe. But people who "tYpE LyK DiS" to be cool irritate the living crap out of me. Or the ones who write "2 b kewl" without vowels or just plain misspelling words just irritate me.
4 people like this
@Stiletto (4579)
24 Apr 07
oh "dis" and "dat" - drives me mad!
3 people like this
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
25 Apr 07
Oh I hate it when I see things like that with the "tYpE". That to me is silly. Now I will admit to now and then capitalizing the second letter in a word when I type, like THat instead of That but that is because my fingers go faster then I realize at times but to try and do that with the letters like that just makes little sense to me. Let alone it makes it very difficult to read.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
24 Apr 07
Ok, I will hold my hands up on this one, and it's a habit formed through texting too much! I will add text speak like LOL and PMSL and OMG which are my three favourite and most used ones especially on Mylot. But I am not guilty of replying with one or two sentences as you know ;0)
2 people like this
• Philippines
8 May 07
Hi! I'd like to know what pmsl means..
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
10 May 07
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, pmsl means P*ss My Self Laughing, hope that helps!
@maryannemax (12156)
• Sweden
25 Apr 07
yup. i h8t 8 2. gosh. is that right? i am not good in text speak. even when texting, i really don't use the text speak method. i don't wanna lose my capabilities of spelling words right and even my sense in correct grammar. anyway, i don't mostly respond to discussions with just text speak words. i can't understand most of them. this is a discussion site. there's no need to condense letters at all. you can type all the words you wanna say without any limit! so, it's purely laziness to some why they do it. or sad... if they don't anymore know how to spell the words right. that is really bad. anne
2 people like this
@rosie_123 (6113)
25 Apr 07
Well I think that's right - but I'm not too good at it myself either! Thanks for your response!
1 person likes this
@wmg2006 (5381)
• United States
25 Apr 07
It does frustrate me to the point I do not even try to read or discuss anyone who is using this. It clearly states in the rules to not do this and even if we could I would not know how. I do not text message, but I do know some of the language. I do use LOL instead of laughing out loud or just laugh. I think it is also very lazy and takes a lot away from the discussion. When I read these discussions I read them as if a person is pseaking to me. I don't think anyone could really speak in the text messaging language. I am not old fashion but I do think there is a time and a place for everything.
2 people like this
@rosie_123 (6113)
25 Apr 07
Thank you for your excellent post.
1 person likes this
• India
25 Apr 07
I am not. We use ti so often now, specially when sending mobile SMS. Ofcourse it can at times make you forget the correct spelling of a certain word later on. People are busy. If one can understand the so called "text speak" it is fine. I don't think there's any bad manners in it.
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
yah its so annoying, because sometimes its so hard to understand, the reason why it originated in text is because in text there is limit in character but here in PC it is unlimited, so why have to use that
2 people like this
@maryannemax (12156)
• Sweden
25 Apr 07
for sure. it's too difficult to understand and get the thoughts of what people are saying. actually, when reading such discussions and comments, i spend a lot of time understanding what they really mean on their post.
2 people like this
@Stiletto (4579)
24 Apr 07
Oh I hate it. It's so annoying and completely unnecessary. I often wonder if it's laziness or just plain stupidity! Maybe they really don't know any better I suppose. I tend to just ignore those discussions anyway. Having said all that I do occasionally use LOL (laugh out loud) but I never really think of that as text speak. Maybe it is and I'm as bad as they are!
2 people like this
@SandStroM (139)
• India
24 Apr 07
"Text speak" is something that should be used only for sms'es ... since it was originated (or) developed for it ... May in responses it may it really hard sometimes to read the comment ... Moreover you find it really hard when someone forgets to use the space in between .... And yes this annoys me too ... But still i am trying to cope-up and learn the new world languages
2 people like this
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
24 Apr 07
The only thing I use often is LOL...anything else is frustrating and irritating. Some responses I can't even read because I don't understand all of the shortcuts! I guess it shows we don't do text messaging on the phone!
2 people like this
@raijin (10345)
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
That is one thing I try to avoid here, and as much as possible I do my best to make my wordings here well-put. I also don't respond to those posts, and I don't like commenting also if ever I receive some of it on my post. It just show how stubborn people can be, and how desperate they are to earn quick money. I also believe that it is not allowed to use "text/chat speak" here, because this is a forum site and not a chatroom. Mylot also don't honor this type of word using, as they only allow english language to for us to sue and be payed..
@raijin (10345)
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
Last sentence "typo", it should be.. "for us to USE, not sue.. Sorry about that.
1 person likes this
@rosie_123 (6113)
25 Apr 07
No worries. Thank you for your response.
@sweetlady10 (3611)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I think text speak is only ok when you use it sending SMS or chatting with a friend in messenger. It is not fair to use it on fourm like Mylot. After all it pays us to post here. Writing should be clear and clean here on Mylot.
2 people like this
@Naomi17 (624)
24 Apr 07
No your not alone it is lazy and it doesn't really sound like a proper conversation. I have seen some people even using it filling in forms and that would stop me giving them a job, bad manners and certainly no points for a good impression.
@rosie_123 (6113)
24 Apr 07
Yes - me too! I even noticed one of the young girls at my work using it on a colleague's leaving card the other day! Maybe she doesn't know how to spell the words correctly?!
24 Apr 07
I must admit that I sometimes use short hand text abbreviations like LOL or something and it doesn't get on my nerves too much, only if the whole message is in text jargon would I not bother with it. Yes, sometimes it can be because of laziness or time. I have to say that the reason I replied to this message is that I found the title interesting, here in the UK a lot of younger people use text speak in their exams because they are so used to not spelling correctly, I think it's quite a sad state really. I have to say that even though I occasionally use text speak here, my thoughts are genuine and I do try to give sensible replies.
1 person likes this
@rosie_123 (6113)
24 Apr 07
Yes the exam situation is sad. I find it incredible that someone like my partner, who is not a native Englsh speaker and learnt the language as an adult, can write and express himself in English better than some native born youngsters here.
@speedy1279 (2665)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Since mylot pays for quality not quantity, I don't think it is very wise to use "text speak". To me that doesn't make for a quality post. Like some other mylotters have said, it makes it hard to understand some of the responses. Especially if you are not use to the "Text speak". The only one I will use is LOL, but even that one I try not to use that often. I don't own a cell phone so a lot of the "text speak" I don't understand.
2 people like this
• United States
25 Apr 07
I hate it. It makes the person writing the message look ignorant. Is it really that much harder to type "you" instead of just U. It's probably because they don't know how to type. I usually skip any topic or post that has that text speak stuff in it because they are hard to understand and it just hurts my eyes looking at it. I do use the term LOL because it has become second nature to me but I use it more to show that I am joking, ie--laughing as I typing.
1 person likes this
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
yes, i am annoyed by text speak. i mean, reading a long text speak in bl;ogs, or even in mylot gives me a head ache.
1 person likes this
@charms88 (7538)
• Philippines
24 Apr 07
I honestly can't say if it annoyed me or not. For as long as I understand what it means, then I don't mind it at all. The only shortcut word I use here is LOL. Other than that, I always typed down proper English words.
@rosie_123 (6113)
24 Apr 07
I say LOL a lot too! I don't really include that - it's more the abbreviations and bad spellings like "tonite" for "tonight" that annoy me!
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
i am one of those who are annoyed with the shortcut. it is not appropriate to use those words because this is not a cellphone and we are not limited to the number of spaces to be used. we can write as long as we wanted as long as it is relevant to the discussion.
1 person likes this
@galatea (686)
• Philippines
25 Apr 07
You have raised a very good and valid point. Aside from using heavily abbreviated words and phrases, I also dislike the use of ASCII characters, or characters that are not a part of the regular characters we use in typing. The latter, text speak, is a sign of laziness while the former, the use of extra characters, is a sign of a wandering mind. Both are irritating.
1 person likes this
@glra2222 (492)
• Australia
25 Apr 07
i agree, sometimes i use lol but mostly i use hahahahaha. I think each extra word we use on myLot increases our earnings - so i think myLotters should be encouraged to write more to earn more! Probably some people just want to respond to discussions as fast as possible. I try to respond by making my words as clear as possible because it can be quite annoying for a reader to try to decipher some text speak.