“Hi lol how ru? How was your wknd?”
“O grl, my wknd was gr8. Hbu?”
“Cool. Mine was perf 2 lolol”
I was talking to my friend once, and our conversation was rather similar to the one above. I remember thinking that we were being pretty silly, as we normally don’t talk that way to each other. But then, I thought about how funny it was that we were even able to talk to each other in this made-up language of abbreviations and chat lingo. I found it interesting that humans found a need for speed big enough that we created a language of abbreviations for our convenience and efficiency. How did we get here? Society is filled with people in a hurry to move on to the next thing. We are always busy, and we need to be as efficient as possible to maximize the amount of time we have in a day to complete all of the tasks set in front of us. We created abbreviations and chat lingo to help us do everything we want to do as fast as possible while still allowing us to be able to get our meanings across to people efficiently and effectively. However, this abbreviated language leaves us with so many unanswered questions, such as, “What actually happened this weekend?” or “How was it great?”
Now you might be thinking: wow, humans suck. We don’t even allocate enough time to type to each other simple words, and we shear off a few extra letters in words just to be more efficient by a couple seconds. But let’s consider the opposite. What if your friend was describing his weekend, and he said, “My weekend was so amazingly, wonderfully, fantastically, terrifically super-duper! I have to tell you everything. I mean, everything!! The minute I got let out of class on Friday, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping and the leaves were changing colors and I was smiling and, oh man, that was just the beginning! There is just so so SO much more to be told…” Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had asked my friend how his weekend was and got a story that lasted for hours, I probably would have regretted asking anything at all because I didn’t want a gargantuan response when a simple lilliputian one would have sufficed.
That leaves us (or maybe just me) with a dilemma, doesn’t it? We don’t want the abbreviations because we would be deprived of details but we also don’t want all of the full-formed words either because that would be tmi. So what should we do then? The obvious answer would be to balance the two opposing forces out and make sure that there are not too many abbreviations and not too many excessive details. But can you imagine always reading sentences formed like this: “My wknd was splendidly wonderful bc I got to see my BFF and we srsly had the best time evr!!”
That doesn’t seem to sound great either. Instead, the solution between chat abbreviations and full form words is not simply in the balance of the two, but rather it is in the situations and appropriateness in which one or the other is used. Chat abbreviations are more apropro for conversations between friends, online chatting, or whatever needs the efficiency that comes with using chat abbreviations. Chat abbreviations are inapropro for situations that need full-fledged details or specificities to get the complete and whole meaning across to the next person. For example, I would not necessarily talk to my professors using chat abbreviations, nor would I necessarily talk to my friends using full-formed words all of the time. Similarly, when I am reading articles for class, I am reading full-formed words, while if I was scrolling down through Facebook, I might see a bunch of lols, hahas, and brbs.
Maybe the increasing prevalence of chat abbreviations is a result of the increase in social media or online blogs, but more importantly this difference in writing styles could be a result of how society is moving towards the fast-paced, higher efficiency lifestyle that comes with the usage of abbreviations. It is not even just a phenomenon in social media among teenagers. The days of the week have abbreviations, as well as street signs, professional titles, class names, and so much more. Chat abbreviations definitely serve people through text messages or social media communications, but the bigger picture is that abbreviations have been in use for years, if not centuries, and chat lingo has been an inevitable phase of writing.
Abbreviations in case you were thinking “wth???”:
Lol = laugh out loud
Lolol = laugh out loud out loud
Perf = perfect
2 = too
Ru = are you
Wknd = weekend
Grl = girl
Gr8 = great
Hbu = How about you?
Tmi = too much information
Wth = what the heck???
I found your essay particularly enjoyable and actually laughed out loud a couple of times. I think a way to make it stronger would be to clearly state a thesis because I got lost a little bit in what you were trying to argue. I think you could also make it more concise… not by abbreviating your words just taking some out! Gr8 Job tho grl.
Jenn, I liked your essay topic choice as it is very relevant to our generation. As always, great job on your conversational tone that really lets your voice shine. For this essay, however, I feel that stating your thesis at the beginning would have been great to set up the rest of your essay. I also feel that a paragraph about why we’re so focused on efficiency would also have been interesting. I feel that instead of writing about the optimal solution for three paragraphs, you could have shortened it to one or maybe two to convey the same amount of content. This would open up your essay for another interesting point. I agree with Gina that while your introduction was great to hook readers in, you should consider taking some other abbreviations out of the main essay. This keeps the reader from being distracted on these abbreviations and keeps them focused on the content of your essay. Overall, great job on this interesting essay.
I think that your main point comes out at the end that society is moving towards fast paced interactions. I found myself lost when you talked about the abbreviated words vs. full sentences because people often text their full thoughts, but during that full thought they would use u instead of you or ur instead if your. I also thought this sentence :We don’t even allocate enough time to type to each other simple words, and we shear off a few extra letters in words just to be more efficient by a couple seconds.
was particularly interesting and could even work as a thesis.
Jenn, I really enjoyed reading your essay. I thought you had an alluring introduction and carried out your voice really well throughout the piece. I especially enjoyed all the abbreviations you included throughout your piece. However, objectively, it may be something to consider that while we all probably know what you’re referring to, there may be audiences that don’t and perhaps some of the abbreviations should be reduced. I know you included the piece at the end but most readers won’t see that until they’ve gotten through the whole piece. I’m on the fence about that suggestion. I also noticed that your thesis isn’t really clear early on and I didn’t get the full idea until I had read through the entire essay. Perhaps introducing it earlier could help guide your reader. Overall, really great job!