Chat slang is a method of typing long words and phrases as short one-to-four letter words and is also used by people who have difficulties spelling. For example, instead of typing out "are", someone may only type "r." Although chat slang can be easier for you and sometimes faster to type, it makes it difficult to read and most people will ignore you. Below, is an example of someone saying "Are you smart because I need someone smart":
R U Smart? Bcoz I need some1 smart to help me read 2day!
Today it seems that this is an acceptable in which to write a sentence. I get that it's shorthand for use when sending texts or e-mails to friends, but..... Would you use this same "shorthand" when posting to your FB feed, your LinkedIn account, etc. Maybe I'm just really old school, but I really enjoy writing a sentence that makes grammatical sense and using words that are all spelled correctly.
I have grandchildren who are just learning to read and spell and I am SCARED for them! If this is the way that they see things being spelled day to day will they ever really learn how to properly spell words? Will they ever know the difference between to, too and two? There and thier? The list goes on and on.
Even commercials these days on mainstream TV reflect this new "shorthand" way of spelling and grammatical styling of sentences. Students (at least my grand babies) are being told that spelling is not as important as being able to recognize words (sight words vs. phonics). I am told that spelling will be studied in conjuction with sight words, but....
No matter your position on the subject, do you wonder what people will be asking 5,10 or 15 years from now about the way in which we communicated? Do you wonder if they will see these shorthand spellings and think that they are seeing a new or evolving language? Do you think our grand-children will ever be able to write a school paper that makes sense to those who have not studied "chat-slang"? Should this be a new course in our middle/high school curriculum and should college professors start to study this too? So many questions!
For me, I will continue to write in a way that I can understand and I will continue to use full sentences in all of my communications with the proper puncuation and the proper grammatical form (hopefully). But if you have an interest in this new language, there are resources available to help you navigate this new language; one web-site I find particularly helpful is:
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/chatslan.htm
Here you will find a pretty comprehensive list (the 411) of "chat-slang" terms that you may find useful in your day-to-day lives when trying to decipher just what someone is trying to say. I hope you don't resort to using this "language" as a matter of course, but I do think it makes some sense to at least have a bit of an understanding so that you figure out what someone may have tried to tell you!
Honestly, it bthoom ( beats the heck out of me) why anyone writes this say, but hey,
dhyb (don't hold your breath) waiting for the tides to turn. I fear that "chat-slang" may be here to stay whether we like it or not.
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