“Hey what’s up, what are you doing” … “Nun much jst chillinggg, wby.” So the person who started this conversation is probably thinking in their head right now; what is “jst” and why does chilling have so many “g’s” at the end of it. Or even sounding out “w-b-y”, at least that’s what I assume they’re probably thinking if they don’t know proper text-slang.
The idea of text messaging, at least the first thing I remember about it is much more modern/common than it was when texting was first introduced. I can remember having to connect to the internet, type out a message, and practically pray that the internet would stay connected so the message would send and I wouldn’t have to start all over again, well at least for sprint phones that’s how it was. However now communicating via text is as simple as tying a shoe, if one knows how to tie a shoe of course. Type a message, hit the send button, and almost instantly the other end has already received and replied to the message. But with text messaging comes text slang, or text language, just as Americans speak English, Canadians speak French everyone speaks a language. With texting, it however has its’ own language with short abbreviations such as “IDK” meaning I don’t know, or “LOL” meaning Laughing out Loud indicating that something is funny, or “IDC” meaning I don’t care and many more combos and abbreviations. Also with text slang comes emoticons, such as a smiley face(: or a wink face(; and even an angry or upset face/; as you can emoticons are the use of one or more symbols too indicate some type of facial expression or emotion. Emoticons and using the term “LOL” can change just about any conversation or tone of a conversation. For example, “Hey” too “Hey(: lol” I’m sure if somebody sent me a text messaging with “Hey(: lol” I would feel a whole different about the flow of the conversation. But the questions that lead me to this topic start with do we as “texters” overuse emoticons and text-slang? Well in some sense we do and at some times it can be inappropriate. For example while conversing with ones parents via text messaging it would be inappropriate to reply to a parental figure with the term “IDK” for the fact they may not understand. Because most of the older generations rarely use text messaging and if one is lucky enough to know how they definitely do not understand the lingo, or even conversing with a co-worker/boss it would be inappropriate as well. It is very simple too type out “I don’t know” instead of “IDK” me being teenager/young adult I would definitely know seeing how much I communicate via messaging. Abbreviations are helpful but not always appropriate in all situations.
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