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Welcome to our weekly BlogAnon meeting where we confess a particular blogging sin and turn to you for support, suggestions and that blogging bond so we know we're not all alone. Don't be shy. Read along and let us know if you identify with us this week.
I have never sent a text message. EVER. I have a cell phone that sits in its very stylish case inside my purse turned off unless I am lost somewhere and call Andy for directions or if I am at the liquor store wondering if Andy needs a six pack of Harpoon. So I don't use my phone as a constant communication device.
I'm not on Twitter, restricted in my character usage. That is why I blog for god's sake - because I ramble on and on and believe in using as many words as necessary to get my point across.
So when I read comments on blogs, on Goodreads, even in e-mails, I feel like I need one of those Texting for Dummies translators to tell me what the hell the rest of the world is talking about - or trying to talk about. LOL. TTYL. ROTFLMAO. Those I figured out. Others...not so much.
It is a tecchie version of pig latin - created by teens who didn't want their parents to know what they were sharing with their friends. And no one is going to convince me otherwise. Adults tired of typing out more than a few letters at a time would be too lazy to spread the new texting language. Teenagers. I'm telling you.
I appreciate the ability to connect and converse easily and quickly with people. I just think people should take typing lessons instead of using text speak as a crutch. Be creative. Find intersting ways to convey your thoughts through less words if limits are forced upon you. Write six word novels - WORDS, not abbreviations. Learn how to spell more than the first letter of a word. And if all of that typing is too hard - just use the voice portion of your cell phone. TALK TO SOMEONE!!!
Do you use text speak in your world? Out of necessity, pleasure or laziness? Does it bug you or make you more productive? Do you think the next generation will know how to spell out whole words? Or do I just need to chillax? Don't be afraid to share - your blogger thoughts are safe with us!
31 comments:
see, we are from the same generation! I find it so much easier to just talk on the phone. The plus about texting is that if you do not want to be tied up in a long conversation, you can just send someone a note and then forget about it for a while.
LMAO! HaHa! My cell phone is rarely turned on and a real friend would know how uselsss it is to call me on it. I have never sent a text message either. Seriously, I don't get the point. But, we are kidless. My friends who have teenagers find it very useful to text.
I don't even like talking on the phone much, so maybe I'm not the best person to consider. Let's talk and make plans to meet. Then let's get off the phone ;)
As for all the slang consisiting of letters that should never be used together, well, I rarely figure it out.
I DO text and tweet from my phone, but I talk, as well, and I have many blogs. Sometimes, text is more expedient. Sometimes it's not.
As to your comment at Bibliotica - I reread Alcott every once in a while, and always find something new. She's a holdover from when we didn't divide literature into books for children or adults, and I find it refreshing.
Wilder is a personal favorite of mine since childhood - I grew up on those books - made more so after a three-year stint in South Dakota, and being married to a man who grew up half an hour from DeSmet, the "Little Town" on the prairie.
I am always forgetting to turn/leave my cell phone on, much to the annoyance of others. However, it is most handy on road trips, and I have to confess that I have had better conversations with the CS by texting than vocally(it is harder to yell with your thumbs). L8R! ;)
Like you, I have a cell phone and I've never texted. I'm not sure how to do it and I don't have anyone to text except my husband.
We do chat occasionally via IM during the day but we never use abbreviations. It's easier for me to type out the word, I have to think to use an abbreviation.
And the abbreviations drive me nuts. It's like trying to figure out those license plates around town. Hate that. Further, I believe the English language is dying a slow and brutal death due to those abbreviations.
Grr.
Oh boy don't get me started! I do have a love affair with the cell phone, but only to TALK. I love to talk. I have three friends who text me (one of them my MOTHER!) and I do text back, with brief, unabbreviated text. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up when someone says U instead of you. I want to scream to two of these people "you are in your 40's! Grow up!". But I don't cause they are my friends. I did just recently joined Twitter, for the purposes of communicating with the Game On Diet group. It is not my preferred way of communicating, and will most likely cease using it after the Game is over...
I love this post! I didn't actually start using the text feature on my phone until a few years ago. I find texting best when the children are being a bit rowdy or there is just something I want to say but I don't feel like calling?
At first I only knew a few terms for texting due to most being used in chats on YM, MSN, etc... My favorite has been using LOL & the :)'s (smiley faces)
But I usually use correct spelling if the rest of my text messages!
I love how you wrote do I just need to chillax? Believe me I was like what is this word? I know now from texts between someone a lot younger than me but I never knew either!
LOL I mean Laugh Out Loud!
I'm glad to see others beside me don't know how to text. I've never used that feature on my phone and wouldn't even know how to begin. I don't tweet either. Another place I wouldn't even know where to begin. I guess I'm just clueless.
Hope you had a "wicked pissah" holiday. Or is that WP is NE speak?
I only use "leetspeak" on the rare occasions that I use my phone to text. Those tiny keys make it tough to do any real typing.
I do text on occasion. but even then I tend to spell everything out.
blogging, LOL is about my limit.
I love this "On blogging" each week :)
Do you use text speak in your world? Never. I don't even use LOL. I don't even know what that RFM...whatever you call it means. Sometimes I have been known to use "IDK" via text if I am in a hurry. Other than that...no way.
Does it bug you or make you more productive? Thankfully no one that I correspond with uses this lingo. This is probably because I am late twenties and I missed this generational issue. Everyone I text/email/Facebook uses punctuation, capitalization and typically uses whole sentences :)
Do you think the next generation will know how to spell out whole words? Or do I just need to chillax? Ha ha, who knows? Someone once said: You don't use it you lose it. Mayhaps this applies here as well.
OTIN = I have nothing against texting - I appreciate the ease and quickness it offers - I just hate the abbreviations that seem to go with it.
STACY = A woman in my office is constantly on the phone with her kids who are teens. When I was that age I went out of my way to avoid speaking to my folks - verbally or in writing! These days kids seem to not be able to make a move without texting or calling a parent first.
MELISS = I have a hard enough time maintaining 1 blog - I am in awe of multi-bloggers!
DS = Oh I don't know, thumb wrestling is pretty effective.
CG = Now see, I enjoy those license plates - I wonder why I find those to be clever creations because the capacity is limited yet text speak annoys me?
SANDY = Agreed. People should not use "U" instead of "You" ever, or at least after teen years - you are saving 2 whole letters for crying out loud! Unless you were texting someone in an emergency situation to save time - i.e. "U need 2 get here ASAP - being stalked!"
KRISTINIA = I do use the smiley icons all the time - but that isn't to shorten a word so I don't consider that the same thing. But I do remember needing a guide to understand what all of those represented too. ;0)
KAYE = I could never shorten Pissah - it is too much fun to look at and you lose all sense of the pronunciation!
BOLIYOU = WTF is leetspeak? Uh-oh - see that? I just used WTF. But that is more to swear without offending anyone. And that is a valid point that tiny keypads make it tougher to type - but I watch friends work those buttons like there's no tomorrow so I call bogus on that reason - the more you use something the easier it becomes.
CAITE = I know how you feel. Blogging is a full time activity!
PENNY = RFM? Do you mean ROTFLMAO? Because that one is "Rolling on the floor laughing my a** off" - did we seriously need an abbreviation for that phrase? I never heard people even use that expression commonly until texting made it cool. "Hysterical" seems to be just as easy - and it is only 2 more letters! I don't use ROTFLMAO because that is never what I am actually doing - chuckling to myself - yes. Rolling on the floor? Nope. I do LOL but it usually sounds like "Ha!" so I just type ha and add more and more of them the funnier I think it is...hahahahahaha!
I love texting! But it's also nice to pick up the phone and talk, to. There's one person I'd rather text, cause she loves to hear herself talk, but other than that...
JANET = That is too funny! The written method is a good way to avoid someone interested only in blabbing about themselves. If I had a desire to be constantly available to people I would use text often - but I would still spell everything out like I do on e-mail.
Oh, thank goodness. I'm not alone.
Not only have I never texted, when I tried to learn to text, I couldn't make it work. Eventually, someone told me I had to pay for the service. Who knew?
I use the occasional smiley or LOL, primarily because we don't have any way online to communicate "context" for what we're saying - facial expression, tone of voice, etc. If I'm joking around, I want people to know it.
No, I'll keep spelling words out and talking on my cell phone. THAT I love - working out on the docks and being responsible for the care of a 91 year old, I'm utterly grateful for cell phones. I remember the days of phone credit cards and having to use pay phones all the time, and there's no way in the world I want to go back to that!
SHOREACRES = I think someone needs to create a "sarcasm" font - that would make my life a LOT easier! Until then I have to use ;0) after every comment where I am kidding.
I only text to people who I know will keep me on the phone FOREVER if I call them. Primarily my next-door neighbor. As it is, when I send her a text, it usually turns into 5 or 6 of them. At least it doesn't tie up an hour spent BSing, and I'm sure you know what that means! I do love my LOLs, and my LMAOs and my OMGs, but I'm too old school to ever use U instead of you. Yeah, it's like fingernails on a blackboard. I still don't know what TTYL means.
SUSAN = TTYL means Talk To You Later
I'm glad I'm not a texter because between you and Janet it sounds like I'd get a complex worrying if people were only texting me because I talk too much!!!
I have never texted and seldom use a cell phone. I can't figure out most of those "lame-o" abbreviations anyway :) I was scared to start blogging--but thank goodness it involves lot's of words--since I am one of those people who loves to use lots of words. I've been invited to some of my friends facebooks--but I can't figure that out. My kids have tried--maybe someday. Right now I'm trying to train my thumbs to type on that teeny tiny keyboard on my kindle. I generally head to the computer and find my books on the website using the standard keyboard. I'm slow at embracing technological advances--but on the plus side I know more about blogging than my kids :)
KAYE = Seems to me you embrace technology when it involves something of interest to you - like blogging, photo software, reading, etc! I'm not on Facebook either - I leave that to Andy, which is dangerous since he always forgets to tell me when people have big news.
Out of all those abbreviations you used I only knew LOL. I could use a cheat-sheet for those things. Maybe there is a dictionary somewhere? Doubt it.
Even though the advances in communication are a bit beyond me, I'm still very glad that people are communicating so much. It's much better than years past when loads of people didn't talk. I love the casualness of people communicating even if I don't get the tech part of it.
I have a shameful admission to make - I'm a texter. And I'm 50, so older than you. I don't like other people listening into my conversations when I'm out so texting is silent. Also, even my hubby answers texts far quicker and more often than phone messages, not to mention my kids. Hubby also remembers the grocery list better when written than in voice mail. Plus I hate the phone. My day job is on the phone and I'm sick of it. Texting feels more like a computer. Plus I'm hard of hearing so I like text better.
Oh! And I Twitter, too. It's a great promotion tool and really quite powerful to find information once you get the hang of it.
My Mum has Parkinson's and is 67, she texts me but a lot of the time it's gibberish... probably because of the Parkinsons but I still like to receive them. I am old school and text in long words with good grammar and punctuation!!! sometimes!!!
I hate talking on the phone, but also am not a fan of texting. I'm always a happy camper when I can email someone or leave a voice message. I RARELY feel the need to chat -- probably true of most of us introverts ...LOL
Let me take advantage of this opportunity to rant! I don't so much mind texting, so long as people keep it to their phones. What I really dislike is writers using those abbreviations in articles, blog posts etc. The English language is so rich and varied. Do we really need these acronyms and other abominations to convey our meaning? AND...have you ever noticed how some people make a snide remark and then follow it with a smiley as if that removes the sting?
i really don't care for text speak. i do text but i type everything out. i think the abbreviations that bother me the most are u for you and combinations of letters and numbers (i.e. l8r)
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