Language Will Be Lost… If Apathy Prevails.
Once upon a time, a typical human we will call “User” was communicating with another person who was making them laugh quite often from their retorts. Since User was using a keyboard-based device to iterate, they were limited to time and effort required clicking keys, rather than orally uttering their responses. The following depicts the experience of such said User.
User types: “Laughs out loud”
User thinks: I think they understand what I am saying. At the same time, typing this for every second sentence I type takes too long. Maybe if I make it an acronym “L. O. L.” I can save a lot of time.
User types: “L. O. L. “
User thinks: Wait! If I take out the spaces between character clusters and also remove the periods, I can save 6 characters worth of typing-time!
User types: “LOL”
User thinks: I like this, But, I also feel like I need to express myself more loudly… I mean, this is really funny stuff! Ahh.. exclamation points! There’s another one! And again! Ok… just try these both out… in an even shorter form!
User types: “Ha!”
User thinks: This is still three characters… hmm…
User types: “Ha”
User thinks: I still feel the lack of an exclamation point, albeit only using two characters is quicker than “LOL.” Yet, it still lacks the passion of which I would like to express.
User types: “!”
User thinks: This is much easier! The only problem is what is exclaimed? Laughter? Shock? Controversy? Horror? Action?
User types: ” “
User thinks: Fuck it, I’m not even going to respond… too much effort.
Please note: Shortly thereafter, the “User” dies due to their brain imploding due to the lack of use; Such results occur because of apathy and laziness. Use full words please, and thank you.
The Moral: Please, we must all text or type in complete or full sentences or the languages of the world will disintegrate, and the lack of communication will kill intelligence of the human species.
Good call. It’s why whether in IM or text message, I always type in proper capitalization/punctuation, and of the popular ‘net acronyms, I’ll only allow myself “brb” on occasion, since the situation requiring the “brb” in the first place (usually work-related) tend also to require quickness.
You just described my life
JCC uses Hahahaha too.
That said, I use some of this stuff via IM and some shorthand too (that no one understands) like p/c and w/o and f/u (which is follow up, not fuck you).
I hate when people do certain ones though like ur and u…*cough* Ano *cough*.
But, maybe I’m not a good judge, I type like a million words a minute….and instead of using lol, I overuse ellipses). Eek!