OMG.
STFU.
LMAO.
KMSL.
WTF.
TTYL.
LOL.
WYD.
OK. Seriously? I am getting so upset with everyone short handing everything. What happened to simply writing in a normal way? We learned it in school and had no problem at that time but why is it when we get on the internet or write a text or email, all of our coveted writing skills go out of the window? I'm sure that none of the vast majority want to become stenographers so I feel we should cool it with the shorthand and use it only in necessary situation. It gets quite annoying when you are reading a text message and you see no true words but just bunched up letters.
A friend of mine sent me a text message saying: "Hey. WYD? I'm KMSL at UToob. Like WTF? LoL!" Of course it was early Saturday morning when I got the text message so I was a little disoriented and at first thought it was a dream and I was on another planet because I couldn't make out anything that was written. Once I was able to discern what was written, my next thought was who watches Youtube on a Saturday morning? Are there no cartoons for people to watch anymore and why are you even texting me this? I was so frustrated, I didn't respond.
This shorthand stuff also can be confusing to those who weren't born into it. Take for instance my godmother. She is in her mid-60's and still has a flip phone with no internet and 450 minutes allotted per month. She got a text message saying that one of her distant cousins had passed away. Obviously feeling a since of remorse and a want to comfort the individuals on the other end of the phone since she couldn't physically be there, she sent a reply text saying "LOL." When she told me this, I literally choked on my food. I explained to her that LOL was not something that you say in a situation of anguish, sadness, or pain. She responded that she saw it on a greeting card and thought it meant "Lots of Love" so she sent LOL in the text. I was further agitated with the fact that, she, someone who grew up having to write on parchment paper with quills (joking) would have such difficulty calling them or sending a text with real words to show how she felt and to express condolences.
I've been a guilty party in this as well but not to the extent of my messages coming out looking like secret codes but on occasion I may type the ever popular and thrifty LOL or OMG. I never take it to the extremes of using it all the time and in every facet of my life.
I'm taking this interpersonal communication course for school and we have a discussion forum where we talk about different forms of communication and how it affects us personally and when we dialogue with someone else. The moderator of the form was explicitly clear in ensuring there are no grammatical, tense, or punctuation errors being we are college students (studying to earn a Master's degree or a second degree) and we are mature enough to write in a professional and concise manner. The subject was about perception and how we perceive people, institutions of laws, or even personalities. I wrote my post and got some replies from others who either disagreed or agreed for different reasons. One reply really stuck out and though I will not cite it or include the full text, you will get an idea of why we should decipher the correct times to use short hand:
"Ur post on perception wuz gud but I thnk that u should not take it srsly LoL. BTW, if you thnk about how it wud have been bck then u wud realize that ppl are not the same LOL. When I first red ur post I wuz liiiiike WTF but I understnd na. Lol."
This was only part of a two paragraph reply that struck me more as elementary. I thought at first that some of the words were typos but when I realized that every word was spelled the same way, I knew it was because they were taking shortcuts. This baffled me because the professor set clear guidelines and expectations about this. They complained to the professor that this was their thoughts and thoughts can't be graded.
One can only think how this is going to progress. I've seen shorthand on resumes and on research papers that I have proofread for my peers. I just don't understand how people don't realize how big of an injustice they are doing to themselves and to the reader and moreover to the content of the text. We were taught to understand words in their whole form and to utilize them as such in order to have deep, profound, and efficacious communication. I'm not saying that our form of written communication shouldn't change and grow, I'm simply saying that the several forms should be used in their respective venues.
I feel that it is necessary to teach the youth about the importance of this. They are the ones who are utilizing text messaging more heavily and defining it as their first line of communication aside from direct face to face communication. Our goal should not be to stop the use of shorthand, but to educate on the proper use of it.
One thing is for sure, I'll never look at LOL the same again. Lol.
I wanted to end this post with a bang so here it is... BANG.
No comments:
Post a Comment