Well I’ve a confession to make my friends, I still haven’t gotten the hang of a lot of it! It’s all a bit IDK and WTF to me.
I did try my hand at text speak years ago when it first reared its illiterate head. I started off gently by throwing in LOL to my friends and family. Slight problem with this though.
I only feckin thought that LOL meant Lots of Love
So cue lots of puzzled and some annoyed friends when I would respond to them with what I thought was a term of affection.
For e.g. there was this time that my friend texted me that her father was terribly ill. I quickly reponded with a LOL with a few kisses thrown in for good measure. Inappropriate. The shame.
And who can forget the time that I thought my boss was sending me way too familiar text messages in work, when he signed off some of his texts with LOL. The cheeky fecker.
I know, I can see you all now saying, OMG, I’m PMSL and LMAO at how stupid Carmel was. I like to think of myself as a little naive rather than stupid, ha ha. (See I told you I couldn’t use LOL!)
Eventually, my mistaken use of LOL was copped, but I’ve been afeared of the word since, so you will most likely see me write Ha Ha at the end of a sentence, if I’m trying to convey that I’m joking.
Now I know I’ve already confessed to an unhealthy use of the word OMG here,
http://carmelharrington.com/2013/06/12/oh-my-holy-god/
so I’m aware that I cannot throw too many dispersions on the txtspk users. But I have a feeling that I’m not alone in the IDK what all this txtspk means.
I know a lot of discussion has taken place as to whether texting is eroding our children’s ability to spell as we watch a whole new English Syntax develop. I do understand the need for quick messages via text, so it is handy to use abbreviations. But the gradual creeping in of text speak into all areas of our written lives does worry me. I would hate to see a time where we no longer know how to construct a sentence.
I’m going to carry on making a stand for the English language and will continue writing full sentences when I text. But I might be reckless and throw in the odd OMG and WTF, just because this really makes me smile….
And lastly, I’ll share something that Will Smith (genius) said this about text speak, that pretty much sums up where I stand on the issue!
When people ask me Plz because it’s shorter than Please. I tell them No because it’s shorter than Yes.
I shall be robbing that line Mr Smith. As I said, genius.
Chat soon or should I say CYA
Carmel x
