I saw the attached text on a sign outside of a store locally: Lays Potato Chips, 10 OZ BOGO! Without thinking, I was not sure if I wanted a BOGO, free or not. Of course with a little thought it was obvious that it is "Buy One Get One". But that's the point. I had to think about what it was. You may deduce from this process that I really don't text much. No, I don't text at all. Texting is not communicating, it is messaging, and I can use IM for that. I do use some abbreviations in emails but only a few. I really do not want to learn a new language and spend time trying to figure out what someone is saying to me. Too many shortcuts and misunderstood thought. It is easier to just delete the mail.
But texting is not new at all. It just never caught on. In an 1867 poem called "An Essay to Miss Catharine Jay" author unknown. In part, "I wrote to U B 4". The entire poem is in abbreviations and can be found with the translation here. The author of that post cites other writings even earlier.
But, when we have services like Twitter with the 140 character maximum, there is little choice but to write in shorthand. But even this is not new. In the 1880's when the telegraph was riding high, there was a 150 character limit or the price to send went up. The more things change...
But to me the trend is clear. If I want to know what is going on I will have to learn something new. Blah! I will stick to the dusty old English I know and like a lot. Just IMHO...
But texting is not new at all. It just never caught on. In an 1867 poem called "An Essay to Miss Catharine Jay" author unknown. In part, "I wrote to U B 4". The entire poem is in abbreviations and can be found with the translation here. The author of that post cites other writings even earlier.
But, when we have services like Twitter with the 140 character maximum, there is little choice but to write in shorthand. But even this is not new. In the 1880's when the telegraph was riding high, there was a 150 character limit or the price to send went up. The more things change...
But to me the trend is clear. If I want to know what is going on I will have to learn something new. Blah! I will stick to the dusty old English I know and like a lot. Just IMHO...
RSS Feed