I H8 TXTSPK ALOL
Yes, I hate text speak (txtspk). I am probably one of those few people in the world who insist on writing complete sentences even while SMSing/texting on cell phones. I agree every character is precious and it makes complete sense to abbreviate messages so that you get charged for only one message. But why do I have to read txtspk sentences in emails? NO ONE IS CHARGING YOU FOR ANYTHING. WRITE COMPLETE WORDS, LET ALONE SENTENCES. And what really irritates me is when I see a liberal use of replacing “th” with “d”. Look man, are you trying to be cool? Because it’s not working. No, it really isn’t. And you are not gaining anything from misspelling things. It’s totally arbitrary and it is not any kind of reason for celebration or show off.
Fr exmple how wud u lk 2 read da rest of dis post in dis abyssmal form of xprshn? It tuk me forvr 2 write dis sntnce. English is 2G2B4G. @TEOTD I knw u r g8ng u r msg acrss but dis is nt pr8y. K gtg nw. Show me the English ▼
It was late 2006 when New Zealand announced that it is OK if students used text-speak in their examinations as long as they showed an understanding of what was being asked of them. And that decision got many a bee in many a bonnet. The NZ qualifications authority apparently were asked “u mst b joking. or r u smkin smthng?” I was initially wondering that probably no one really wants txtspk to exist because it ruins academic writing. Turns out there are ongoing debates where educationalists are fighting over whether txtspk should be allowed or not…
The first *serious casualty* of txtspk is grammar. Well, grammatically speaking, they are trolls… but dramatically speaking, they pretty much convey the message. Let’s be honest. Languages have evolved a lot from what they were several hundred years back. They have always converged towards ease of communication and understanding. And that’s probably why Latin is no longer spoken by anyone. 
But will this lead to txtspk being the ‘talk of the town’? Can it actually become a colloquial language?
Nevertheless, ryting lyk dis irritates da hell outta ma sanity.
You might be wondering what on earth ALOL is. The reason behind this actually cracked me up. So, LOL is ‘Laughing out loud’ and ALOL is ‘Actually laughing out loud’. It arose from the fact that some people while chatting on IM or texting on cell phones never really laughed out loud even if they punched in “LOL” on their screens. So they wanted to draw the distinction between just LOLing and Actually-LOLing. ALOL. On that note… I came up with a self-explanatory graph here – the latest in Thoughts in 2D.
PS: I thought it should be text speech – but I really don’t know why it’s called text speak.
PPS: I required a bit of asking around to know what’s new in txtspk. Looks like my age does not permit usage of txtpsk.
I completely agree with you here. Be it text messaging or IM, I write complete sentences. I understand that this lingo shortens words but seriously.. if one can write ‘Ma book’.. they could as well make it ‘My book’! It’s two letters either way. I find this extremely uncool and lame. And yea, irritates the hell out of my sanity too!
@Kadambari
It damages the beauty of language. I am OK if used in SMS/texting, but I hate it when used in emails!
Hi Kadambari, I am glad you agree!
Maybe it’s text speak and not text speech because you are speak ‘text’ language. Ya knw, lik L33T speak n Texan speak.
I don’t use SMS lingo and end up running up huge phone bills.
Hmm I’m kind of neutral on this because I use sms language for text messaging to cut down on phone bills. But for writing never, I feel it sometimes questions the very existence of English language. If people really want to save time on words then they can use active voice instead of long passive boring sentences that look like twisting your hand round the head to point at the nose.
Agree agree. I avoid using it for text messaging too and in the bargain run excessively huge phone bills, but no, it doesn’t make me change my habit. Email is out of question.
ALOL (i intend to use it a lot for some time to come
)
well, i cmpltly agr-e. it z v annoyng wen ppl dnt wryt propa sentncs.
and i write my mails in ms word. caps n all that. cant stand it otherwise *pat on my back*
PS: u r not allowed to judge my way of writing my comments though
@Julia Scissor
Hi R (yes, I got it from I)! I guess I get your point, moreover, ‘text speech’ is a bit of an oxymoron. I have that same problem with SMSs too – end up sending two page SMSs and eventually do pay more! Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
@rads
Ha ha! Yeah, the active-passive thing. Yes, I agree with you. Actually a friend of mine posted this piece on Facebook, triggering off a HUGE discussion as to why “you” wastes more time and energy than writing “u”. It was funny on several levels with some taking the extreme case of condensed writing! I wish there was a way to embed that thing inline here!
@Deepika
Hello ji biji girl! I am glad you agree with me! I now know there exist several people who feel that we don’t belong to the current generation!
@Nikita
Ha ha! I am not judging it, Nikita! And I HAD NO IDEA that “z” is the new “is”.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting, everyone!
While texting I am okay with omtng vwls fr wnt f spc nd mny But everywhere else english betetr be spoken and written the queen’s way!!
@Reva
Heh heh, the Queen’s way, huh? For some reason, your comment reminded me of the entire saga on news channels as to how England was aghast that Michelle Obama hugged the Queen! She should have thrown in some txtspk too!
Hey Koko,
Txtspk is another of thousands of irritating innovations of modern day; I am learning to live with it now.
Don’t have a choice really; you must at least understand it even if you don’t speak the language.
Though, I must admit, sometimes I admire the effeiciency . But as you pointed out, that leads to things like “LOL”. No one would bother typing “Laughing out aloud” if he or she wasn’t. But the “LOL” reduces the barrier to lie .
And loved the short hand paragraph of yours
.
brownphantom´s latest blog post – The Profound Lie
#BrownPhantom:
Heh heh, I like how you say “LOL” reduces to barrier to lie
Thanks for commenting!
Absolutely true. I have this friend of mine, who has this habit of pointlessly using smileys while chatting.
Like :
Hey! I flunked in chem this semester !
what the heck? He want to smile, grin , laugh, grimace all at the same time!
#Rajarshi:
Heh heh yeah, I read about it in your blog! I have subscribed to it, btw!