I don't know when text messaging started becoming popular because I wasn't paying attention and I wasn't involved with it. In my opinion, it was a mistake for text messaging to be incorporated with cell phones because people have become lazy, using abbreviations, acronyms and Internet slang instead of using correct spelling and grammar.
I don't know what or who's responsible, but the introduction of kids cell phones has made matters even worse. This is leading to a degradation of languages worldwide and if you haven't noticed, you're living under a rock.
Internet and Cell Phone Slang
If I laugh and send you a text messaging containing "LOL", do you know what it means? How about "ROTF", "WTF" or "FTW". It's a sad day when I have to ask young people what something that I'm not familiar with means. Heck, it wasn't until I saw "Nacho Libre" that I realized that combinations of "x" and "o" mean kisses and hugs (with uppercase meaning big and lowercase meaning little). I had already seen it at the bottom of text messages and computer instant messages and was clueless before watching that movie.
Just in case you're as lost as I am most of the time, here are those abbreviations again and what they mean:
- LOL – Laughing Out Loud
- ROTF – Rolling On The Floor
- WTF – What The F***?
- FTW – For The Win!
Of course, there are tons of combinations being used as well, like "ROTFLMAO" which means "rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off". These are the abbreviations that have been around a while and there are some that I still haven't figured out, especially the newer ones invented by kids.
Cell Phone Service Robbery
The problem stems from the fact that cell phone providers charge by the message and each message is usually limited to 140 characters. People try to stuff as much as they can into that 140 character limit to incur the least amount of charges. Who can blame them? The cell phone companies are making a fortune off of people who primarily use text messaging and it's highway robbery considering how little it costs those cell phone companies.
Flat rate text service subscriptions mitigate the cost, but the fees are ridiculous to begin with. Regardless, cost is no excuse to promote illiteracy, especially when Internet slang is being used in the real world. Someone left me a note once and it was signed with Internet slang. Please! How lazy can a person get?
Words are Power
Words are power when combined with a large vocabulary. You don't hear motivational speakers or other speakers you respect using "net speak" or Internet slang, do you? Of course not!
Would you be reading this article right now if it was filled with Internet slang you're not familiar with? I wouldn't and I'd be ashamed to publish an article like that, except maybe as a humor piece making fun of Internet slang.
If Internet and cell phone slang annoys you as much as it does me, I challenge you to use it as little as possible. Nothing bothers me more than trying to decipher things that shouldn't need deciphering. While I can understand text messaging on cell phones using restrictive acronyms and abbreviations, I can't stand to see it in Internet forums or on blogs or other places where people are not charged by the message or character.
I and my wife exchange text messages via Yahoo Instant Messenger when we're not talking by voice using Skype. Neither one of abbreviates anything. We may misspell something between the English and Tagalog translations, but it isn't intentional. If we can do it, given the obvious language barrier (English being her second language while being my first and Tagalog being my second language while being her first), then anyone can. That is, if you really want to.
Notes:
I'll add notes here as I see people searching for certain terms:
1) RT is my first two initials. If you get a text message with RT on it, it doesn't mean it's me. RT stands for "Re-Tweet" in Twitter and could also mean "reply text". Other than that, I have no idea.
2) More test slang:
- BRB – Be right back
- BTW – By the way
- CUZ – Because or cousin
- PO – Pissed off
- R – Are
- U – You
- UR – Your
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This article is published as: Text Messaging and Internet Slang
Okay, first let me just say . . . I got into serious trouble for using the text message format, or whatever the hell it is called, at work through the use of E-Mail. Here is what happened:
I replied to one of the managers, ( and yes, I know that I should not have used this sort of language with the boss, but I wanted to make my message short and sweet ).
Anyways, to make a long story short, I had to apologize to her for the inappropriate E-Mail. The reason I shared this story with you, is because there is two sides to every story. While I personally do not see anything wrong with using the " shorter version " of communicating with people, ( family, friends and co workers alike ), there is a certain professionalsim that should and/or needs to be displayed in the work environment.
As stated before, I would not mind having to use the shortest form of conversation(s), ( weather it be by the phone, face or E-Mail ), but at the same time, if you had the opportunity to meet the Queen in person, you would not want to be using such improper or inappropriate language around her.
Just saying.
Great article! If you're looking for more slang resources there's a couple of great tools for helping understand text language. http://www.noslang.com offers a text message translator, and http://www.textsendr.com will even translate your text into slang and send it as a text message.
I agree that this trend has bring about problems concerning the English spelling and even grammar. However, text messaging and this wrongly-spelled yet correctly-understood-by-many style in messaging is really helpful when it comes to emergencies.