or Txtng abt mi gnr8shun
Blogging is like most bodily functions in that if you don’t do it for a while one of two things may happen. One is that you may become blocked, like a proverbial pipe and when it finally clears it’s enough to make your eyes water and you promise yourself never to do that again...or secondly if you don’t use it, you may lose it, or at least lose the proper use for it. This makes people immediately think that I’m talking of the need to buy magazines from that section of the newsagency that you don’t go to unless you have a specific need. I do go there, as I find word puzzles and Sudoku books exercise the mind and keeps it sharp. That is what we were talking about....wasn’t it.
Anywhoo, I digress from the job at hand which is the latest entry for the Semi-Qualified Proctologist in which I, with the help of learned colleagues, will dip into the world of Text Talk. What the hell is it, what does it mean, and who can be bothered.
I firstly have to admit that I am not a habitual user of these abbreviations. In fact it is only recently that I began to understand some of it. Unfortunately this meant that I had been using some of these abbreviations incorrectly for a period of time, resulting in several people not returning my messages. The most embarrassing incident (which led me to Google some of the terms) was when responded to a writers forum request from a lady who was interested in corresponding with mature internet literary forum members from remote outback farming locations. My reply was” that I was also looking for a MILF..ROFL if you want a casual session occasionally..” shortly after that I was blocked from that site.
So, to avoid embarrassment, and possible litigation in the future, I have decided to investigate the culture of text abbreviations. OMG, did I make some discoveries (see, I can do it)
Back in the day, we used to have some of these in the language, but we used to call them acronyms. There were SNAG’s, DINK’s, SOB’s, and SWF’s. You could tell someone to POQ and they wouldn’t bother you, and we were proud of our ANZACS and former POW’s. All of these were usually used in sentences that contained regular full words. For a full and colourful explanation of how this has taken over our correspondence, I needed someone on the cutting edge of modern Culture. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone, so Frank No Pants explained it to me as follows;
“the origin of the text message comes from the need to send so much information as quickly as possible, which wasn’t actually a need until everyone got mobile phones and decided that they were so damn important that they needed to be messaging as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and all the time having nothing to say that was so important that the previous 100 years of human communication hadn’t worried about coming up with a solution to the problem. And because most of these people could only rely on their thumbs to accurately hit the keys, the process would be too slow if complete words were to be used. So the SNERT’s (Snotty Nosed Egotistical Rotten Teenagers) started shortening and abbreviating everyday words. Although mostly annoying, especially when they creep into spoken conversations, there are a few examples that I found that are worth using.
ACORN –A Completely Obsessed Really Nutty...
FBKS – Failure Between Keyboard and Seat
IMAO – In My Arrogant Opinion
NASCAR – Non Athletic Sport Centred Around Rednecks
WOMBAT – Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time
ROR – Raffing Out Roud (Scooby Doo Language)
This is all actually true. YCMTSU! AFDN I will be ALOL when I find that I was LSHITIPAL, so I PIMPL (If I wore pants, that is).
And not all efforts are suitable in conveying the message in the correct manner. For example, See You Later Alligator works as CYLA...but See you Next Tuesday will not translate as well. This is a language that continues to evolve, but like most modern the users will be judged as a Fad Actually Guiding a Generation Of Tosspot Students. On that note, I have an appointment with my BOB, so I’ll TTYL...”
As usual, Frank got me and Numnuts thinking. What are future generations going to think of this language of the 21st century? Will it be looked on as a quirky bi-product of the time, to be ridiculed in sitcoms of the future like has happened to the sixties. Will Generation Text still be messaging each other in 50 years as they are today? Well, if they are they will need some adaptations to the current words.
WOL – Wheeze Out Loud
BBFF – Best Between Four and Five
WROFL – Wheelchair Rolls On the Floor Laughing
FML – Filled My Lycra
WTF – Where’s The Food..it’s past 4.30
SFO – Soft Food only
CTN – Call The Nurse
WAMIP – Where Are My Incontinent Pads
CYTMH – Can You Take Me Home
And for the dementia sufferers
WMNA – What’s My Name Again
NFED – New Friends Every Day
I suppose some of us will continue to seem ridiculous in our pursuit of correct spelling, and thanks to spell check and other technology we can all seem much cleverer than we could ever hope to be. Of course, I am not the first to question how our language has been turned upside down by new meanings to favourites. I have attempted to add a link to an educational youtube video from Ronnie Corbett which deals with the same topic.
http://youtu.be/kAG39jKi0lI
What does it all mean? BMADAITY
And so I end, and I tell yer fer why.
DB
