Chat-speak

[andysocial]

I don't know why kids (and they are invariably 12-15) want to butcher the language to the point of incomprehensibility. I know when I was in school, we would use single letters or numerals in place of words, and so on. But it's gotten so far out of hand now I can't even begin to decipher some of the crap showing up on Livejournal.

Here's a partial list:

• Dun - It's a real word, meaning a brownish-yellow color. It doesn't mean "do not."
• Yew - Another real word, it's the name of a tree, not the second-person singular. And, it's not even shorter than the word that should be used!
• Wit - Humor, not conjoined.
• Misplaced Zs - Alwayz, azz, etc. No comment needed.
• Wuz - It's not any shorter than the real word, so why use it?
• Ur - An ancient Mesopotamian civilization, not a second-person possesive.

I'm only hitting a few of the highlights, obviously. What is really interesting to me is that, because I learned to type at the age of 10, my handwriting sucks ass. But, when I type I am anal about going back and fixing errors. The more you type, the faster you type, and so the less useful those absurd abbreviations become.
But, I'm old so what do I know?

Comments

*cheers*

[therealsugshady.livejournal.com]

Ur - An ancient Mesopotamian civilization, not a second-person possesive.

Very nicely done!

Re: *cheers*

[andysocial]

I figured I could just mock the children, or mock them and try to educate as well. hehe

OK, mostly it was about mocking.

[somabrak.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of these types of errors. Bravo!

[andysocial]

I can understand using ppl for people, and thx for thanks, but WUZ and YEW are just mind-boggling. Or using EYE instead of I - that's nonsensical.

[sosiouxme.livejournal.com]

they're not trying to abbreviate, they're trying to look cool. it's kind of like a jive version of text.

[andysocial]

I know it's just an absurd trend, but it's amazingly annoying. There was an article in the NY Times a while back that the kids have even been writing term papers littered with this dreck. They don't even realize that it's wrong in formal settings. That goes far beyond the kewl leet speak I indulged in briefly in the 80s BBS heyday.

[andysocial]

I hadn't even thought it through to that point, but it's true enough.