h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

See, abbreviations (as I mentioned before), I'm cool with. Hell, I tend to use them a lot, so I can't really complain. I'll admit I don't go as far as LOL and whatnot, but I still do.

l33t, I have a slight tolerance for. Why? I don't know. I guess I can just understand it easy enough. And sometimes it amuses me to bust out a whole sentence in l33t when typing with someone.

txtspk? No.

l33t? Does it mean leet

I thought replacing letters with numbers and ending words with 'z' was called 'cowboyz' (the language of r3b3lz ).

I'm also anti textspeak when it's used inappropriately, i.e. other than between consenting mobile users!

On a slightly different tack I also deplore unneccessary verbosity - I perceive that some people have not been taught the skill & value of being succinct. My hubby is fond of a quote (Napoleon I think) who apologised for a long letter saying 'I didn't have time to write a short one'.

I`ve been following this thread with great enjoyment,the arguments for and against textspeak will probably rage for decades.Before anyone says anything i`m one of the fuddy-duddies (?),but it is worth bearing in mind that if exams were to be marked on the spelling and grammatical content that used to be in place then i`m afraid that a greater number of students would fail due to incorrect spellings that all come down to textspeak

hmm, yes, unnecessary verbosity can be a pain, but can also be fun. Done in a 'aren;t i clever cos I know all these big words' it would make me skip the content. Done in a word play manner, a self conscious 'lets see how many words i can take to say something simple' i can admire the skill and knowledge it takes.
Kinda like the obfuscated code competitions that go on in geekdom.

perhaps we need an obfuscated english competition, and to keep it along the same lines the message to be conveyed would just have to be 'Hello World'

Long time ago, when the earth was green and this thread was young, Mina said:

>> Change can be a good thing, otherwise we'd all still be writing like Chaucer. <<

I think Chaucer said that. Or something very like that. He was a revolutionary, a turning point in culture, a major mover and shaker for change. His reputation, and the percieved value of 'writing' there-after, resulted in the standardisation of spelling and syntax so we could all read and write and learn and argue on the internet.

peace
jwf

For all those who have been asking 'What is l33t?'...

A787917

i only ever use letters like u and r to represent words like you and are because its easier when typing, and for people with phones means they can write long messages but not many character used for sentences.


c u l8er

That's intelligible at least

Interesting thread .

While I think that txtspk or l33t are perfectly acceptable in their own setting (anyone remember CB speak in the '70's? ), I'm bowled over by the fact that people actually type up their CV's/resumes in txtspk. I thought it was a joke, until one of the researchers here said that she received lots of CV's like that . Companies get so many CV's these days that they usually reject CV's based on the flimsiest of excuses. I have been hiring people myself over the past few weeks, and I just think that if someone sent me a txt CV, I would feel they were either pulling my leg, or not exactly living in the real world. I doubt if I would even acknowledge their efforts. Do they have any concept of the impression they are making?

It emphasises the point to me, that all communication is based on the fact that the communicator and the communicatee need established and agreed ground-rules and an agreed language before they can communicate effectively. If the ground rules are not agreed, then all sorts of difficulties can occur.

Woodpigeon

I'm 16 and i often use txtspk while i'm using MSN Messenger, as it's a fast and easy way to speak to the five people who's conversation windows pop up all at once. However, I agree that it is annoying in any other place than IM's or messages on cell phones, and I hate reading notes or things my friends write that have txtspk in them. I admit, if you aren't very, VERY familiar with all the different shortened words, txtspk is horrid babble to attempt to read.

whilst i agree that writing 'txt speak' on CV's is totally unacceptable it seems that getting very annoyed over 'txt speak' is pointless to me.

surely there are alot more important things to be angry about in the world.

i for 1 can think of many, many things if i could be vothered in writing them down.

i for 1 also think it is wrong judging people on their fist impression if they write 'txt speak' or for whatever reason.

imagine if you have got self esteem problems n think yourself as unloveable or ugly etc n someone commented negatively about your looks etc. not gonna make that person feel good is it?

there are alot of people who use this site who have grown up with 'txt speak' in the last few years. is it really fair to think of them in a negative fashion just cus of the way they write?

i knew someone at school who was dyslexic n people bullied her cus of it n you know what happened? she tried to slash her wrists over it. so please dont judge or get angry at people just cus of how they write etc etc.

cus like i say theres many many more important things to worry about in this life isnt there?

oh, we aren't judging.... well, i'm not. I'm just saying that i use it only for certain things is all. I don't think anyone here is out to cause harm. Just a little venting.

I tend to respond negatively to what appears to be "sloppy" writing. On the Internet, how you write is both your face and your voice, and I instinctively react to "txtspk" and messy grammar with a similar (and similarly wrong, I hasten to add) revulsion that many people have when encountering someone physically disfigured or otherwise abnormal. As a small and usually badly-dressed geeky kid, I try to be careful not to let first impressions cloud my judgement of people, being all-too-familiar with the potential consequences of being hastily judged.
Interestingly enough, I've noticed that many people (myself included) assume mannerisms online that they don't have in real life, and vice versa. Part of this may be due to the substantial differences in the media of communication: some things simply can't be translated from digital text to analog conversation, and even if they were might not have the same meaning. A classic example is the joke: "Why can't computer geeks tell the difference between Halloween and Christmas? Because OCT 31 = DEC 25." One simply can't have the necessary ambiguity between "December twenty-fifth" and "decimal twenty-five" when telling the joke out loud. Similarly, two of my favorite shirts have "jokes" on them that can be understood only in their textual form. One has "" on the front and "" on the back, and the other says "There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't."
(OTOH, I generally have no problem with judicious use of acronyms (although I rarely use them myself) and I will gladly overlook the occasional tpyo, but the ubiquitous substitution of "loose" where "lose" is meant irritates me to no end.)

Getting annoyed over 'txtspk' may be inconsequential and incomprehensible to some, but to others it's a personal bugbear. Everyone has little things that others do that irritate the hell out of them - for me that is poor spelling/ grammar/ punctuation. Which includes txtspk.

Why? I'm not sure why. I think, perhaps, that writing and reading were drummed into me as being very important at a young age. Because I cherish reading and writing, and I despair at the fact that not only are people of my generation and younger losing the ability to write, but also the will to read. Why? Because it's boring. Because a book isn't as flashy or noisy or instantly gratifying as TV, the movies and computer games.

That's not to say that everyone of my age or younger is an illiterate freak. Obviously a great majority of those on this site are avid readers and writers, of ALL ages. What concerns me, though, are those that believe that reading is 'uncool' or boring. Those that believe that as long as _you_ know what you're saying, it doesn't matter what the 'grammar nazis' think about your spelling and punctuation - Despite the fact that a misplaced comma or an inadvertant homophone can change the entire meaning of a sentence.

What does this have to do with txtspk? The prevalence of txtspk, outside the forums for where it was intended (ie mobile phones with character limits, IM programs), seems to be a symptom of the aforementioned apathy toward the quality of language. I want my future children to be able to learn how to read and write properly, without coming home with essays full of 'u' and '2nite' and so forth.

I'm rambling, yes. The long and the short of it is that I don't like txtspk for a lot of reasons. I'm just trying to explain some of those reasons for those who don't understand...

Addendum - When faced with those who insist on txtspking, or even those who rattle on about not feeling the need to capitalise because it's a waste of time or so on, I will react with derision and often scorn.

Why? Because I believe you can do better...And I'm terribly biased like that.

Its just laziness. Thats all. Theres a time and a place for it, and thats not here and now...

Is the prevalence of txtspk also related to the lack of importance to spelling and grammar in English at school? In the UK there certainly seems to be an element of style over content in *youth culture* -> Cool Britannia. (see also F19585?thread=297862 )

OTOH, maybe it's a healthy rejection of brand culture. Microsoft have virtually branded the English language through their Word spell/grammar checker, so perhaps it is a good thing. A little healthy rebellion never did any harm.

I certainly agree with a lot of the above, and it should be remembered that the point of language is to enable communication between individuals. If there are no ground rules and definitions then this task becomes very difficult. I'm all for flexibility as anyone reading my posts will confirm and I often slip into jargon or slang and sloppy practises.
I agree there are many, many other things to be annoyed about in the world. Many of which the majority would agree are more important. But, as a complex intelligent human being I am able to hold many, many opinions and consider many different situations (and evidence on this site alone would suggest that other people can do this too! ). Just because some things are considered more important doesn;t mean I can't get annoyed about this. I've yet to see anything which says that humans are limited to holding n opinions at any one time. I can get annoyed about the double standards of governments and the way the world is run and have a go at my sister when she sends emails saying 'How r u'.
p.s. like the oct/dec joke, hadn't heard that one!