For Scott.Scott and I have been talking about unnecessary abbreviations and acronyms. Like, in this day of e-mail and instant message (the key word there being "instant")- we still have to shave valuable milliseconds off our communication by typing things like "Thx." (Btw, ("by the way") this is one of Scott's pet peeves; if you are truly thankful for something he did, take the time to type all the letters in the word.)
I, personally, can't stand it when ppl use "u" for "you" and "2" for "two" but things like "LOL" ("laugh out loud") and "IMO" ("in my opinion") don't bother me. Things abbreviated to sound like everyday speech are fine (" 's no biggie") but things that are just plain stupid ("kewl"- seriously. WTF? self-explanatory?) are not.
That being said, before the age of e-mail, I often wondered what the "@" symbol was all about. It takes the same number of keystrokes to type it, so what's the deal? You need to abbreviate a 2-letter word? But, it's turned out to be one of the most widely used grammatical marks in today's society, so I guess it worked out OK. The ampersand, though... again. You deleted one keystroke and 2 characters. Worth it? I think not. YMMV ("your mileage may vary").
TTFN! ("Ta-ta for now.")
ETA: ("edited to add"): My favorite Scottie-ism re: (regarding) this topic: " 'w/' versus 'with' - this has always appealed to me, maybe because it's strangely fitting that a slash can help represent this particular word. Perhaps it's like saying that by adding the sign for division (/), we're implying that it takes more than one part to make what we're describing complete. Bagel w/ cream cheese, separately only a fraction of the delightful complete whole. Mmmmm, bagel."
11 comments:
One would think with all the time I'm saving with abbreviations, that I would be much more efficient. But sadly, one would be mistaken. . .
I'm with you on this. Most abbreviations REALLY annoy me.
One time, I was standing in line for some concert, and this girl behind me was talking to her friends and said, "BTW, I need to get your money for the tickets." I could NOT contain my laughter because I couldn't believe she actually abbreviated herself while she was speaking. It really was hilarious.
They kept pretty quiet after that.
she said "bee-tee-double-w"???? That has MORE syllables than "by the way."
A couple of weeks ago on The West Wing, Janeane Garafolo's character said "that's a whole other B.O.W." and they were like "huh?" and she said "ball of wax." the hell? Again, with the more syllables. Kinda negates the abbreviating part of abbreviation.
i'm with you - i LOVE acronyms. i HATE crazy spellings. I blame girls named amy. when i was in middle school they all had to try to be unique by spelling their name funny. amie, amey, aymey, the list goes on. now we have kewl. whatever.
something that kills me is when Rachael Ray (Food Network gal) says "then i put a little EVOO, Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the pan". it's like WHY abbreviate it and then SAY what the abbreviation is abbreviating??? how is THAT efficient?
oh and i just learned something cool about the ampersand, it used to be part of the alphabet!! when kids got to it they would "say" the symbol by saying "and per se and"...do i need to go on and tell you why we call it ampersand now?
thanks, i'm here all week. ;-)
oh, and ps, anon: some people's PARENTS are responsible for the dumb spellings. i was always ticked i couldn't have personalized pencils and license plates for my bikes because my name wasn't Jennifer or Amy or something common.
ohmigah, Krysten... EVOO totally creases me too. I love her but she needs to dial the perkiness down a few notches.
I wasn't going to say anything, but I have to because Jamie is making me. This freakin' drives me insane! I'm sorry... I don't consider myself an anal retentive person, but come on already... this is the English language we're talking about! Do you know that I actually met someone who writes smiley-faces in long hand sideways, like this: :-) With a pen. On a piece of paper. Sideways.
I love the Internet, don't get me wrong. But this is insane. "gr8"? "ne1"? How about this. Kiss my ass! I am officially skipping turning into my parents and going right to my grandparents. Twenty years from now, a whole generation is going to be spelling "anyone" with two letter and a number. Because hey... we're just that lazy.
Thanks, Jamie... going to bed with high blood pressure now. Or is that "hi"?
:-)
To Krysten,(from the commentor previously known as anonymous) -
good catch on the parents. my ire was directed firmly and solely at the people who simply decide to start spelling their name differently to stand out.
and i feel you on the personalized stuff - until i was 12, RYAN was pretty tough to come by. :)
Props & t'anks, O'Jaime, for the blog space.
I think the old Jeff Foxworthy bit about redneck abbreviation is also in the acceptible category.
As in "m r 2 ducks... c d e d b d wings?"
I agree, to a certain extent. It crawls up my butt when I see things on forums like "ne1 wanna go 2 the concurt? kewl!" or whatever. Some things just look ridiculous abbreviated. But I don't think other abbreviations are so much about efficiency, as much as they are about creating a unique language of the webternet.
Scottie-san,
That reminds me of a song in "The Emperor's New Clothes"- when they are trying to teach him to sing but he doesn't know how to read, so they teach him a song of all letters. The tune is incredibly catchy, so I'll be singing it for the rest of the day:
R U M-T?
I C U R...
I M M-T 2!
N F U R M-T S I,
O I P-T U!
**damn you Lord Voldemort!!!!**
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