You’re probably familiar with the story of the Boomer who thought it would be really cool to use a texting abbreviation thirty years ago,* so in replying to a text with news of the death of a mutual friend, replied “LOL,” thinking it meant “Lots of Love.” Yeah. Not so much.
Whether that is a true story or an urban legend, it’s easy enough to believe it happened. Oh, how far we’ve all come! Regardless of when (or if?) you started using texting abbreviations, new ones are always being added; in fact, some oldies have stuck around long enough to be used by Gen Alphas!
The table below is a list of shortcuts I find myself using on a regular basis: more with my older millennial daughter, nieces and nephews, Zillennial friends—and less with others. I’ve left out a few of the more pungent ones, which you can find for yourselves, the use of which really boils down to skillfully inserting the letter F in creative ways.
Note: It’s best to open this post in the app or view in browser. Otherwise, in the email, the table needs a click to fully open (Srsly??🙄)
I want to add a word about capitals and lowercase use, because Verbihund. People who are more digitally literate know that caps come across as shouting. For example: although lol might be a standby, Lol is a bit more formal. And while LOL might border on a snorfle, LOLOL and LOL!!! are usually reserved for serious laughter.
Other than being aware of volume and emphasis, it’s author’s choice. To me, some just look weird in caps, like irl, because, who is IRL anyway? Likewise, I always use rn because RN would be a non sequitur. Yet, I tend to use caps for JIC for no logical reason other than it seems more distinct than jic. See how that came out? I put jic in bold bc it looked lost and ambiguous in lower case—although bc did not. Like many nuances in communication, there are few fixed rules, and the freedom to decide how best to get one’s message across is a glorious feeling.
Fwiw, I used to feel mild disdain at TLDR, until I received the renewal policy for my homeowner’s insurance, and, well, TLDR!!
I’m curious about our shared history with texting! Feel free to answer one, several, all, or none of these in the comments ~
Do you use txt spk on a regular basis?
With whom do you use it most often?
What anecdote stands out to you about sending or receiving texts?
What year (approx) did you start texting?
How do you characterize where you fit amongst the generations? (Feel free to use your own words.)
* Incidentally, the reason txt spk was born was due to the limited characters available in SMS when it was developed in 1992 by Neil Papworth, a then-twenty-two-year-old software programmer from the UK.
Neil had been working as a developer and test engineer to create a Short Message Service (SMS) for his client, Vodafone. That very first text, sent on December 3, 1992, simply said, “Merry Christmas.” 📲
Ty for rdng @ verbihundcafe.substack.com
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I very seldom use txt spk, just OMG or TMI. I get impatient with a lot of txt spk in messages I receive because then I need to ask the sender to tell me what it means or I Google it--thus slowing down the communication. (Cue "OK, Boomer.")
TY for the handy reference guide!