Rant Against Internet Abbreviations

Rant Against Internet Abbreviations

     We see them. We hate them. Internet abbreviations, shorthand, quick typing, whatever you want to call them. And the sad truth is, about 3/4 of people use them. It is perfectly ridiculous to type in this short manner, and this is where I vent my anger about it (as it is my #1 pet peeve).

     What are Internet abbreviations? Good question. Internet abbreviations are things such as typing u for you; r for are; ttyl for talk to you later; and ppl for people. You are quite welcome to see my growing full list of abbreviations, which has nearly 120 of them I have found so far.

     Now, I'm sure that a "u" here and there isn't terribly horribly awful, but in many cases it can be extremely difficult to read. While I am experienced in reading it (nick.com is good for that), many people aren't, and may not even bother to read it. (Absolutely horrible for a website, might I add.) Take this sentence as an example. It's a REAL MESSAGE I got from someone once. "o yea ur rite lol im sry g2g ttyl" Think a moment and try to figure out what that said. At that moment in time, I did not understand all of it, and more than likely you do not either, unless you've seen my full list already. What it meant was, "Oh yeah, you're right! I'm sorry. Got to go, talk to you later." Now, isn't it so much easier to read that way? Here's a made up one, but could just as easily be said. "wen pplz rite lyke dis wit da shortend werdz 'nd da mispelinz 'nd da ghetto talk dat dey tink wil make dem look kool, it make dem look reel bad man" Ahem, there you go. Hard to read? You bet it is.

     More often than not, it's either a small kid about 8 or 9 years old or high-school people (haha, I mean "ppl") that type in that way. As far as the little ones go, it's basically a matter of wanting to look cool (as in, on a message board or forum) in the others' eyes. Believe you me, USING INTERNET ABBREVIATIONS WILL NOT MAKE YOU LOOK COOL! This is a point I cannot stress enough!!! It will do just the opposite; people will think you don't know how to spell, don't know grammar, don't know punctuation, or any of that other stuff that makes things easy to read. Would you like it if someone started talking like, "Hey mans, how'd its goinged?" NO! This can be similar; both are not following simple rules of the English language (even though I think it would be worse to have someone actually talk like that). What I find amusing is pronouncing the abbreviated words differently than how they sound ("u" could be "oo", "r" could be "rrrr", etc.).

     And then there's the rest of the people who don't type because they think it looks, as the very same people would type, "kewl" or "kool". Now, these people type abbreviation-style for another dumb reason, and the reason is what most people would argue with: It's faster. Come on, people! Take the time to actually write out that message to your best buddy over IM, take the time to make your web page look easy-to-read and not turn people away, take the TIME to CARE! In the eyes of those people like me, who don't type short-style, it really makes it look as if you don't care at all about what you're typing. Faster, schmaster. If you're in a hurry, just don't check that email at all. And for that matter, I find it slower to type that way in the first place! It can really make it look like you don't care, and even that you don't want to be here in that you're typing fast to get it all overwith.

     One thing I feel should be included in with this is sticky caps. Quite simply, sticky caps is typing with one letter capital, then one letter lowercase, then one capital, one lowercase, etc. In short, TyPiNg LiKe ThIs. This is nearly as annoying to read, and another false attempt at trying to be "cool", which again, it DOES NOT DO. Do not use sticky caps in typing either... It is extremely irritating like abbreviations are.

     In conclusion... abbreviation words are completely worthless and dumb! They make it look as if you don't care about what you're typing, as if you can't spell or don't know grammar, and are more than everything else, HARD TO READ! People are losing the ability to spell simple words, for crying out loud, and it most certainly won't make you look cool in anyone's eyes! Please, I beg of you, if you're one of the people I've been ranting about, start typing the normal way. It's SO much better.