Divide by Null - undefined

AOL speak. How infamous. It can be summed up in this quote: "Relationships are so easy on the internet: it all starts with 'asl' and ends with 'stfu'." That's not exactly verbatim... but still. I've heard "wtf" be used at school and "brb" on occasions, both jokingly and not. "wtf" I can see used as a euphemism, "brb" I can see used as an abbreviation (but it's 3 syllables still, unless pronounced "burb"... which I've heard). But when one gets to "lol"...

I may occasionally abbreviate words when typing. "brb", "btw", "imo" and "wrt" are examples of ones that I use... relatively often. I never use "lol" though. It never seemed right to me since I would always read it as "lohl" or "lawl" or so. I said that I didn't use it because I wouldn't say it in real life. Which is true, but I was incorrect with my reasoning.

When I type, I'm thinking of what I'm typing. If I encounter a phrase that could be initialized or otherwise abbreviated, I'll abbreviate it. One would (hopefully) not laugh by saying "laugh out loud! laugh out loud out loud out loud!" My abbreviations are just shortened formats of the words that I'm thinking of. In addition, I only abbreviate using initialisms, unless I would otherwise speak it in an abbreviated form ('cuz, wha, etc), and in general, I type how I talk.

Being on the internet so much, I'm used to reading posts with internet abbreviations. Oddly, I read them slightly slower than those with proper grammar and such. It's actually harder for me to type like that because I have to think about it. It's just natural for me to type out everything. It's become habit.

Now, as to why I do the same for texts (yeah, apostrophes too), I don't know. It's more proper? It looks better? In any case, I'm willing to go the extra mile. I can understand why people would shorten their messages for texts. Space limits and the general inconvenience to enter messages are convincing arguments. Regardless, I don't.

And as for abbreviations on the keyboard, is "u" that much better? "cu l8r" is code-like to me. If it's speed that's the problem, practice proper typing! Such abbreviations would likely actually hinder typing speed, at least for formal documents.

In any case, that's how I use it, and I don't muchly care if you do it differently. As long as I can read it, it's fine... for IMs and texts. E-mails and forum posts should have proper grammar. Those are asynchronus versions of communication, giving plenty of time to spell check. It's just a pet peeve, really. I can live with it... but not contently.

Strong Bad and Mr. Period agree... scalawag.