Those Acronyms Are Killing Me
All because of texting, language has transcended into acronyms that shorten words for the benefit of time and space, and generations. But when those acronyms follow us into our emails, well it just affects us all.
Teachers, listen up.
You have to listen to your kids; they’re indirectly trying to teach us, by code, how to live in today’s world. Maybe they can’t tell you the difference between tense or gender, and they may not be able to scribble down a definition of acronym, but there’s not one that doesn’t know all about them and their structure, and they’re super-eager participants when it comes to researching a stream of information via Twitter. That’s what technology has done for us.
I got the FYI down, long ago. I use it all the time because I’m always trying to share information with my kids, and I found sending an email = Subject: FYI and a link is a pretty snazzy way to do it. It’s lots quicker and easier than cutting an article out of the newspaper, laminating it, and mailing it to them so that all the great info can be kept forever and ever. It was just great, until I discovered they don’t open any emails with FYI in the subject line! Phhhhhhh. . .
I don’t text because my friends don’t text–we still phone each other up, or email, or get together. In fact, our cell phonesaren’t even glued to our fingers, because we’re all busy with everything else going on that makes the world turn, so texting hasn’t found its way up the priority list yet. We just slide our phones into our pocket or purse, and occasionally even turn them off. So why, and to whom would I text?
Long ago somebody said, There’s no question that’s stupid; they should have added, Not asking questions is really, really stupid. I prove it every time I try to figure things out by myself.
The first time I saw LOL at the end of one of my emails, I thought, Aw, that’s nice. LOL-Lots of love. Except that I didn’t know this person all that well, so it seemed kind of out-of-place. But, I figured, they’re just the touchy, feel-y sensitive kind, and aren’t we a generation of having to say “I Love You” at the end of every, single, stupid little phone conversation because somebody said we needed to do that instead of just saying, Bye!— to the point that I Love You Good-Bye has really come to mean nothing when it’s said over and over and over and over and over. And everybody within earshot knows it really means I’m having to say I Love You, but I really want to slam the phone down with a simple Bye! this time because it’s plain I’m mad as hell at this kid and what they just did at this particular time! but if I don’t say I Love You it might alter his/her self-esteem and/or precious ego!
And weren’t we a generation that, when we parted company, or land-line telephone conversation, we said, Love Ya, which meant nothing but, Bye! So Lots of Love didn’t seem so unusual after all.
Then a friend wrote LOL, and it didn’t fit anything like the Lots of Love kind of email remark I’d seen before. What in the world? so I had to ask, Whatdayamean LOL? She wrote back, Lots of Luck.
Aw, that’s nice. I needed LOL. “Thanks!” I didn’t have the heart to tell her it meant Lots of Love and that it didn’t really fit.
I trust my kids to tell me about acronyms. They wouldn’t lie, and they certainly don’t get it wrong. It’s funny how your tech-world comes together when they finally sit you down and make you just listen to them on Texting/iPod/Twitter Education Day. Who woulda thought LOL could only mean Laugh Out Loud? You go through life thinking the world loves you and wishes you luck, only to discover they’re laughing out loud. Wha . . .?
Still, I love learning, and it makes me feel so clever to write emails coded with acronyms. All because of texting. What’s next?
LY (Love Ya)