Get Back to the Basics

[JPG]

USN tale: An aircraft was leaking oil onto the flight deck and an officer inquired of the sailor standing next to the leaky plane where the oil was coming from. Not knowing, the sailor looked under wing and replied "Sir it looks like it is coming from the BBRT", whereupon the officer replied, "carry on".

The sailors buddy had overheard the verbal exchange and then asked him WTH is a 'BBRT'.





The sailor then said, "Big Black Round Thing"!:D

[idcook]

WTFDTM?

Figure that one out. It&#8217]

LMAO – means funny. Your ass is still on and you aren’t even laughing. Smiling or internally chuckling with no sound but LMAO - Not!

IMHO – means I think – and has noting to do with humility. Just state your opinion. You aren’t a teen-age texter and don’t need to adopt their jargon nor is any humility involved.
There are dozens of others I’ve run across but these two are the most prevalent and serve as prime examples.

Why have we adopted this meaningless Text-Speak?

Yes, I know it is designed to convey a message, which is not correct in simple terms, designed not to offend anyone and which requires fewer strokes (get there as fast as you can:eek: ). That could, and does have a double meaning. I just don’t have text shorthand for it.

To my knowledge none of those terms are new. Text-Speak, as you call it, is merely a sign of the normal human tendency to adapt to whatever circumstance it confronts. In this case what might be called internet shorthand which, BTW, took form very early into the emergence of the home computer becoming part of everyday life and was largely encouraged by even the earliest proponents of the technology’s developers. Nobody refers to a cathode ray tube anymore. They don’t even call them CRTs or screen but, rather, "monitor.”

We shorten words and phrases because it’s more convenient for repeated use. Saving time during conversation or to save both time and space for written communication. Sometimes we make the adjustment just because it strikes us as amusing to do so or because it gives the subject a feel that fits whatever the current trend of human conversation might be.

International Business Machines Corporation became IBM.

More recently this might be more readily influenced by the very nature of the subject. Computers, which were generally held to offer a faster route to whatever you were looking for or wanted to do naturally created a faster language. DDOS (Down and Dirty Operating System) became CDOS (renamed by Microsoft after Gates purchased, then slightly reengineered, DDOS), then, finally just DOS (People simply dropped the C because there wasn’t any A, B, or whatever else DOS to distinguish it from; making the C superfluous or, as that generation would see it, slower.)

This seeming trend has long existed. How many people do any of us know who will still say that they drive an automobile, watch television or listen to Compact Discs?

Internet shorthand is just a continuation of what humanity has always done with language — Alter it to suit our level of familiarity with a term, phrase or concept.

[db5]

Funny JPG. Well, if you can't enjoin 'em the join 'em. So here is a TXT TLA (three letter acronym) that should be introduced. Those of us who were in the military will understand because it is so applicable today. STP. As in "that general's aid really STP." A great way of expressing what government and military people (and others) do when they are covering their collective asses and it catches up with them. For example: Lois Lerner (IRS) STP.

[WmZiggy]

I think the Oxford English Dictionary (aka: OED) is about 24 Volumes. Language evolves. Acronyms serve lots of purposes from speeding communication to who is a member of the club. A BUFF has one meaning in the Air Force, another at the shoe shine stand. If you want to be a member of the texting community you will lean acronyms PDQ.

[rjent]

you will lean acronyms PDQ.

Not to mention LEARN

PRIN in all things .....

[WmZiggy]

[quote="rjent"]Not to mention LEARN

PRIN in all things ..... ]

I are a college graduate. Seriously, travelling and typing on a phone keyboard designed not for people fingers.