I don't send or receive text messages. I don't know how. I don't use my cell phone hardly at all. When Joe was here last summer, he was showing me his iPhone. It does everything but make toast. He took one look at my phone and quipped, "I think I saw that in the Smithsonian".
I can understand the need to abbreviate words when texting, even when emailing. But I am so, so, SO sick of seeing Text Speak in Facebook statuses and comments. I admit that I use abbreviations as well, but not a lot. However, some of it has been getting on my nerves, especially when the text speak goes on and on within a sentence. Or two.
The comment I saw that finally pushed me over the edge was: "Thank u 4 mine. I was terrible and didn't send ne out this yr. I hope u had a good xmas". OK first off, I'm sitting there, puzzling over 'ne'. It finally occurred to me that it's an abbreviation for 'any'. She didn't send N E cards out. But this is what kills me: The person went to the trouble of typing out the entire word 'terrible', but felt the need to abbreviate a 3 letter word into 2 letters???? 'Thank' is typed out but 'you' has to be cut down to one letter? Who makes these arbitrary decisions on what to abbreviate?
Some of my younger friends will respond to me 'ty' for Thank You, and 'yw' for You're Welcome. That annoys the ever loving crap out of me. Does it really take THAT much extra effort to type out the entire words? I mean srsly, WTF? ;o)
I feel your pain. Being a graduate of Mass Communications, I was taught to write clearly, legibly and no abbreviations when writing a report or a news article. When Twitter came around with a 140 character limit for messages, the "text speak" generation came alive. It's mind boggling and it promotes "wrong spellings" or even "wrong grammar" at the most and I'm sure my college professor will have a heart attack. LOL
ReplyDeleteThe good thing I can share is that I try to keep my messages as short as possible that I won't need to abbreviate anything. Sometimes it is impossible. But the best message to text is this: "CALL ME" in that way I can tell whatever and no matter how long it is, no abbreviations. :-)
I'm not a fan, either. I don't text, even though I have a flashy (for me) phone with touchscreen and lots of bells and whistles. I hardly use a mobile, and only replaced Old Faithful because it died when I was trying to phone for an ambulance at an accident. Mostly it isn't even switched on.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I'd remembered you could say things like "gr8" for "great", many hours would have passed by!
As for "predictive text", it should be banned. When I'm adding new people to my contact list, I nearly throw the phone out of the window.
I will admit to using abbreviations when I am tweeting for people to donate to the films I have posted on my site. Since I am long-winded, I find the 140 character limit debilitating for me, LOL. I've been working 2 jobs, one of them is to demo the Samsung Galaxy Tablet at Best Buy. This does everything but bring you coffee. Unbelievable. My phone belongs in the Smithsonian too and to see the technology that exists is mind-boggling to me. This tablet has a barcode that scans items for you to look up the best price. It can measure your heart rate by placing your index finger over the camera lens. The only reason I really use my phone is for a modem for my laptop. I text and make calls on it very rarely. The art of communication is going the way of the dinosaur. I remember being in school and getting graded on handwriting. What they call "cursive" nowadays. Handwriting is an art and it's a lost one. One of my best friends in school had the most gorgeous handwriting. Now all you need to do is type...such a shame.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! I agree totally. I too have a rarely-used Go phone and I can't even remember how to capitalize letters when I add someone's name to the phone number list. Maybe I'm just old, but why can't people just call someone. I hate hearing my coworkers texting like mad. Pick up the freakin' phone!
ReplyDeleteI use my phone to call and to text, but I rarely use abbreviations. I mean here and there, but not much. And I really don't like it when people use it in "normal" writing or on Facebook all the time. Or if they do not use grammar or write everything in slang. Drives me nuts, really!
ReplyDeleteWe actually had a work placement student in my last job who typed company letters in 'text speak' and couldn't understand what the problem was. I sometimes worry people are raising a generation of morons!!!
ReplyDeleteYour worry is confirmed, Diane!
ReplyDeleteLOL ... omg, that made me laugh. I KNOW what you mean! But I do text now, I'm all in the future with that sort of thing ;) But for the most part I don't abbreviate that much. But to abbreviate a 3 letter word to 2 is just creating work for my brain.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the younger generation (gee I sound old) even know how to write a letter?
ReplyDeleteI don,t know about u but it's the r-bitrariness N the cuteness faddishness that Annoy the snot out of me. Not to mention the over use and addictive behavior that seems to be spreading like a bad disease!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTU 4 UR rant baby! I M with ya! Tee hee!
I don't have a cell phone, I use my daughter's when I have too. The text speak drives me nuts. Half the time I'm on google looking up the short forms because I have no idea what "they" are trying to say. My son is so use to using the computer to communicate to his friends that he is hesitate to pick up the phone to talk to them in person.Something is being lost and people are not learning how to talk to each ohter face to face. There's no eye contact and emotion is lost.
ReplyDelete