Who here hates those stupid abbreviations like "ru" instead of "are you"?

Question

I swear it makes people seem stupid/illiterate when someone says "ne1" instead of anyone. COME ON people, it's not hard to type a couple of extra letters. What about "r u jkg"? LOL

I'll just say this as politely as I can. If you fill your sentences with abbreviations such as these, you're going to appear uneducated to the rest of us who take pride in trying to present themselves as intelligent.

Am I being too harsh? I don't intend to be rude or hurt anyone's feelings, but I know I'm right.

texting on cell phones is a valid exception

Answer 1

I love you.

I thought I was the only one. When I was a Yahoo/AIM chatter, I used to gripe at people (ppl) about that all the time. It's a few extra keystrokes and makes you look a whole lot more intelligent! Unless you don't care about that sort of thing.

I also can't stand it when people don't know the difference between "your" and "you're". That and "its" and "it's". Those are the two most commonly abused.

I'm right there with you...

Answer 2

Due to the lack of typing space on old mobiles I can understand why these abbreviations developed, but now larger capacity for texts on phones and predictive text being much quicker than these short cuts they should really be defunct by now. Having said that one of my own sisters texts back 'k' as opposed to OK, which I find amusing.

They shouldn't really be used in emails etc as I find it quicker to type out the whole word, then stop and thinking about getting some sort of abbreviation correct.

I don't think people using them appear uneducated, if the person using them is older than 13 than I think they appear to be trying too hard to be something they are not. Having said all that I use LOL on this forum

Answer 3

For the most part, I agree with you. These types of abbreviations are no more acceptable for most forms of written communication then lack of punctuation or capitalization. However, I think text messaging may be an exception to that, as it frequently limits the overall number of characters you can send, and is very slow to have to type out full words in a text message via a phone keypad.

In a business or personal communication - emails, faxes, memos, etc, I would say this type of stunt is entirely unacceptable!

Answer 4

Thank you, you are not being harsh, on the contrary. By these stupid abbreviations the English language will get poorer. Those abbreviations can have serious consequences. You speak of a real problem. It really concerns the whole world! I´m very worried too. We have the same problem in Scandinavia!!!

Answer 5

Two words: persecution complex. Claiming that "xianity" is an attack on Christianity is a lot easier for some than acknowledging it's an ancient tradition. The latter would actually require research.

Answer 6

Yeah , it bugs me as well, more so when kids who can not type a complete sentence. I tend to ignore them. It's funny from my perspective of being on the Internet since the early 90's and seeing how the language has been butchered.

It's even worst on on line gaming, which when I do come across people that do the text message speak, I pretty much ignore the chat.

Call me a Literary snob.. so be it.

Answer 7

Okay I game a lot, meaning sometimes stuff like r u and c u is imperative if you like your current score, or don't want to get shot. Sometimes when you're really hacked off at something, abbreviations is what you use, or at least me and my friends do, because you really don't care what your spelling looks like. However, I also write. There are times when c u ru and all that lot gets annoying and overused, but for the most part it is something I really don't mind. I think it depends which fence your sitting on when you answer this question, if you're a gamer, you're probably going to say cu ru etc is fine. If you're a writer, or a pleb, you're probably going to say it should be banned from society altogether.
There is no one real answer for this question :)

Answer 8

The only time I would ever use such abbreviations is when I'm text messaging. Otherwise, I agree wholeheartedly with you.

Answer 9

I agree. We don't pay per letter here. It doesn't take that much more energy to type out a word than to use some silly abbreviation. I suppose someday we'll see corporate memos written in this "language"

Answer 10

Hey, Come on dude! There is nothing harsh in what you asked. You just ask people's opinion on it!

In my opinion, I think its the evolution of science that is the reason for all these. Many youngsters of this generation use that short codes, because they are so well adapted to it.

Our grannies wont find it so pleasing to their eyes, because they are not used to it, and they find it irritating. Its just the matter of the generation gap now.

5 to 10 years down the line, everybody will be typing short codes. "Dnt u thnk so?"..."lol"....