The former.
Unless someone has to pay per character or something.
it is now acceptable to shun and mock someone who still tlks 2 u on txt msg
You'd have been fine if you stopped right there. I don't understand the kids today with their fancy texting.
Well, now that that's been answered, I guess this thread is over then.
What do you mean "now?" It was always appropriate.
Some would say that we have to put up with this kind of thing in order to communicate with teenage girls. But not all of us want to do that.
i had someone tell me all about how people will have a poorer impression of you if you don't capitalise one's emails and it will make people think you're dumb. she had me going for a bit till i realised this was just entry-level classism.
I guess it's more the degree of my reaction that surprises me. Like if it's someone I just met, it makes me think "whoa. we're going to have to work this out if we're going to be able to be friends."
yeah, like whats a time when it isn't appropriate to mock? mocking is the most basic stance towards life.
7: There's no problem with that. You're just right.
This is even worse when people use that stuff in emails.
I guess it's more the degree of my reaction that surprises me. Like if it's someone I just met, it makes me think "whoa. we're going to have to work this out if we're going to be able to be friends."
Seems like an age effect. Are you about to turn 30?
just wait till you have grandkids who use 'lol' as a verbal verb
I recently strongly suggested to my father that he stop using emoticons in communicating with me.
Am I right in thinking that "Zomg" is pronounced with one syllable, and a long O sound?
What about "Rotfl"?
I thought it was "Zoh Em Gee" and "Roffle"
14: No, see, I think you include the T in the acronym. "Rote-ful".
I guess my real question is: how much of a dealbreaker is stuff like this for you? Do you easily gloss over differences in communication styles and technology usage or is it hard for you to get past?
Dealbreaker.
I've recently stopped responding entirely to the IMs of a friend from high school. It was making my head hurt to respond to her inquiries of "sup" and "how r u".
Writing in all lowercase is one thing (I tend to do that over IM myself), but c'mon, at least make an attempt at normal spelling.
Isn't the no-t ROFL the original? I don't truck with this acronym revisionism.
I keep forgetting that it's possible to communicate with my fiancee through email, because her responses never have more than 20 words in them and therefore I basically don't notice them.
But at least she doesn't use shortened versions of words.
I don't truck with this acronym revisionism.
IDTWTAR, pronounced in the Welsh fashion.
Am I the only one that switches styles based on to whom I'm typing?
On the other hand, I tend to punctuate even lowly text messages. I like t9, except for shivbunny's unfortunate tendency to not give a crap if he's mistyped a word and its dictionary replacement is something like 'rhubarb.'
What's this IM thing you're talking about? I haven't sent an IM in about 5 years.
I'm such a dinosaur. I have texted, but probably less than thirty text messages lifetime.
I like t9, except for shivbunny's unfortunate tendency to not give a crap if he's mistyped a word and its dictionary replacement is something like 'rhubarb.'
He must be a pretty book guy.
clearly "zomg" is pronounced "zzohmygod"
I don't even know what the 'z' is for.
LB, it isn't for anything. These net `acronyms' are full of typoes that took life on their own. Like cow-orker.
24: Not only have I never texted, I've never even had a cell phone.
It stands for ZOOM!!!
No, it's a deliberate typo, like "teh" or "pwn". Happens when you miss the shift key and hit Z instead.
28--
took life on their own? intentional?
took on a life of their own.
took wing, on its own.
i take life on my own terms.
i did it my way.
it's...alive!
it's taken on an affectation of its own!
30, yeah 'teh' and 'pwn' are better examples than cow orker
I realize this is a terrible confession to make here and all, but I still like emoticons. Largely because I have an awful propensity for sarcasm, which I find is often lost even on people who are very well aware of my propensity. The occasional ";-)" or similar such, however dorky, has proved useful in avoiding needless misunderstanding.
I suppose I could also try being less sarcastic.
Am I the only one that switches styles based on to whom I'm typing?
I do this all the time. I tend to mirror the capitalization practices of whomever I'm writing.
"I have an awful propensity for sarcasm"
yeah, right.
I'm such a dinosaur. I have texted, but probably less than thirty text messages lifetime.
Thirty more than me....but then I literally am a dinosaur.
Di: I think that if you're sarcastic most of the time people tend to discount your BS automatically. Your problem is that you're occasionally not sarcastic.
Call me anti-social, but I see the texting abbreviations as only slightly worse than texting itself. Neither one is a dealbreaker for me, of course, and if I get a text message I'll usually reply in the same way, but texting takes almost as much time and concentration than talking, if not more, and I find situations where it's actually better are pretty rare.
In a library, I guess it makes sense. Or if your contract gives you a better deal on text messages than on talking. When else would you use it, though? Using it in a class or meeting or when you're supposed to be at work might be less disruptive to others, but it's no less distracting from what you're supposed to be doing. Using it while driving is even worse than talking would be. Texting might be better if you have something to say that you don't want people around you to overhear, but it's a bad medium for personal stuff for other reasons. So is there any good reason to text(1) regularly, other than Cryptic Ned's in 5?
(1) As anal as I might be about punctuation in IMs and text messages, I reserve the right to verb words left and right.
38: I think that's a very useful observation, John.
On my phone and most others which I've checked if you type 2-6-2-5 in T9 the first result is "coal," the second "anal," and the third "cock."
lost a message to this thread, appropriately enough.
Most of my text messages are to my kids, who are teenagers. They've never had much use for the abbreviations, and I think they find them lame and passé. I've found T9 easy to learn and use, although my fingers feel to big to do it very fast.
I am totally with Di on emoticons. Especially when e-mailing people I don't know, and don't want to seem abrupt or cold. I abuse the hell out of them.
I would be happy for a "No, really" emoticon for the rare times when I'm trying to communicate something literally intended.
The occasional ";-)" or similar such, however dorky, has proved useful in avoiding needless misunderstanding.
I've been explicitly told once or twice that I really *should* include emoticons occasionally to take the edge off some of the things I say.
Noooooooooooo! A puzzle, a conundrum!
I do use them with just one email correspondent, as a kindness to her, because she needs/appreciates the interjections.
I don't use emoticons, but tend to use exclamation points more often than I would otherwise to avoid sounding too much like Marvin the Paranoid Android. It's cheating, but I do it anyway.
I am totally with Di on emoticons. Especially when e-mailing people I don't know, and don't want to seem abrupt or cold. I abuse the hell out of them.
When you included the emoticon with the middle finger sticking up, you didnt seem so warm and fuzzy.
I would be happy for a "No, really" emoticon for the rare times when I'm trying to communicate something literally intended.
I have created one. I sincerely mean that. :-|
48: Wait, how do you do that one? In some situations, that might be more useful than the ";-)".
Actually, I would end up using the "No Really" emoticon sarcastically. Scratch that.
My ancient cell phone doesn't do predictive text. Is wanting a courthouse-safe phone a dealbreaker?
My parents use "R" and "U" as words in emails and IM, but they came by it honestly: old school TTY use in the days before the internet. When only one person can type at a time and when you're paying for long-distance it makes sense to use abbreviations like that. Obviously "l8r" would make no sense to typical TTY users, so I'm spared that sort of awfulness.
ASCII art doesn't seem to work in these comment boxes.
There are many moments in life that are amusing or interesting enough to relay by text, but not amusing or interesting enough to remember to bring up later.
There is also the sense of being in constant contact with the other person, which I guess I could imagine someone not enjoying.
But then, I literally am a teenager.
6: It's a sliding scale. Occasional mistakes are perfectly normal. Consistent mistakes of a certain type in otherwise good writing, like not capitalizing or mixing up homonyms like "there" and "there": I find them annoying annoying, but I tend to mentally file it more like a personal quirk than a sign of some larger problem -- basically, also normal. But frequent mistakes of many different types? It seems like a useful sign that something is wrong, whether stupidity or craziness or extreme carelessness. Someone on a local school board sends in letters to the editor with words in all caps and half a dozen exclamation points in a row, and you know, she's pretty nutty in real life too.
37: Thirty more than me....but then I literally am a dinosaur.
I find this hard to believe.
My mom used to leave phone messages as though she was paying by the word. In my dorm room I'd get messages like, "Heebie. Mom. Called, will call back. Love, Mom." With really emphatic pauses.
61:
I hate long phone messages. hate, hate, hate them.
I am pretty tolerant of just about anything but long phone messages.
but then I literally am a dinosaur.
Wow! Ornithischian or saurischian?
My favourite non-standard emoticon was: ,,),, (swivel on that!)
Thesis: abbreviations like 'r' and 'u' are more common among people aged 22-25 than among the younger set that learned to text with t9.
but texting takes almost as much time and concentration than talking, if not more, and I find situations where it's actually better are pretty rare
I text daily, but only with people I already talk to often. Just sent a text a minute ago: "Drink tonight, 9 at noir?" Got back answer: "Yup. Til then." A call would have taken more time, not to mention bothering my officemate and using up daytime phone minutes.
But this only works because I see this friend regularly, and we had said just yesterday that we should get a drink soon. If that text came out of the blue it would be presumptuous.
now we've got people saying that spelling is a dealbreaker.
aren't there more up-front ways to criticize saiselgy than by writing a post like this?
57: There is also the sense of being in constant contact with the other person, which I guess I could imagine someone not enjoying.
Hmmm. It remains unappealing to me, but I actually do know people who would like that part, at least, so I guess I can see what you're talking about.
64:
people between the age of 22 and 25 are the younger set.
37: Thirty more than me....but then I literally am a dinosaur.
I find this hard to believe.
I knew some of you kids wouldn't believe that there is still a living being out there that has never "texted".
So is there any good reason to text(1) regularly, other than Cryptic Ned's in 5?
Sure. I tend to text when I want to communicate something short, but which isn't worth incurring the overhead of a phone call. If you call someone, there's a lot of back-and-forth required so as to not be rude; texting is lower-stakes.
I think that when my I or my kids are on the train, which is deafening or a friend is in a project boileroom or may be in a meeting, the text is very much more practical and intrusive. The train effect is probably why I so often get quicker replies to text messages.
I hate long phone messages. hate, hate, hate them.
Me too.
AND! I hate, hate, hate how my voicemail takes FOREVER to get to the goddamn message itself. There's no way to skip through the such-and-such a time, from such-and-such a number.
67: I may never say another unkind thing about Yglesias again, such is the depth of my gratitude for his reporting of the Kaus goat-blowing scandal. The comments are quite good, too.
hate how my voicemail takes FOREVER to get to the goddamn message itself. There's no way to skip through the such-and-such a time, from such-and-such a number.
Agreed. As I wait and wait, I think about how the cell phone company is trying to rip me off by burning up my minutes.
I text daily, but only with people I already talk to often.
Me, too. I find texting useful for making very simple plans, but not much else. Maybe I'd feel differently if my phone had a full keyboard. I'm pretty accepting of message styles, only don't make me struggle to decode it and don't exhaust my tolerance for cutesiness.
75--
you've heard about that scandal, too?
i must say, i was really quite shocked at first.
but it just goes to show--you don't know what people are like.
texts are good if you're somewhere where it would be inappropriate to speak, like a lecture or meeting, or if its about something slightly embarrasing
40
38: I think that's a very useful observation, John.
said di kotimy, her voice dripping with ill-concealed contempt and derision.
Wait, Unfoggetarian, your parents are deaf? Both of them?
I have fond memories, in pre-IM days, of teaching my boss how to talk to a relay operator. "GA" is the hardest thing to learn, but once you learn it, it's hard to not say.
Back when I had deaf customers, I developed an awful habit of saying "Go ahead" aloud to my colleagues and other customers for about fifteen minutes after any relay-assisted phone call.
I used to enjoy reading Kaus, until about 5 years ago. That he's still out there, trends in his writing and thinking having continued from where he was already going then, amazes me.
It is always hard to figure out whether Di kotimy is being serious.
She emailed me the other day and wrote, "You are such an F'ing a-hole." Then, she added an emoticon, as if that made me feel better.
There's no way to skip through
I agree that this is maddening, but IME there usually is a way to program it not to give you the so-called message envelope. Have you already tried this?
I'm weirdly arbitrary about text abbreviations and emoticons. I hate the winky face, but love the little tongue-sticky-out goofball face. The smiley and sad face are fine if not abused. I don't capitalize while texting, and I'm okay with leaving out the apostrophes or shorter phonetic spellings when you're not dealing with a full keyboard, except that I cannot abide "how r u?" (which my dad uses all the time, goddammit). In fact, using "u" for "you" pretty much irritates the crap out of me, dunno why.
80: Yeah, good sarcasm is usually pretty easy to detect simply from the phrasing. When people miss it, I just figure they're being dummies.
39: I'm the exact opposite. I'll talk on the phone when I have to, but texting is so much more efficient. I can talk with multiple people at the same time, or concentrate on doing something else, and switch back every once in a while to answer messages. Being able to send links/photos is nice too.
I wish I could type using txt shorthand, since it's theoretically faster (my phone has a qwerty keyboard); damn, I'm old. Someone should make Mavis Beacon for txtspeak.
I may never say another unkind thing about Yglesias again, such is the depth of my gratitude for his reporting of the Kaus goat-blowing scandal. The comments are quite good, too.
I just don't get this. The other other being I've ever heard associated with Kaus is Ann Coulter.
Being involved with a goat would improve Mickey's reputation.
Caffeine is bad for the GABA-dopamine hippocampus blah blah something technical of baby pigs.
I cannot abide "how r u?"
It makes me want to hurt people.
It seems fairly obvious to me that phones will eventually replace computers (they are computers), and therefore texting of some sort will displace email and the like completely, unless you just like talking on the phone incessantly. I don't.
I also find the best way to deal with people using massive numbers of abbreviations is simply to continue replying in english and they either adapt or get annoyed and go away.
max
[' }:>~ ']
92: Me too. Also, I hate the phone (which is why texting is teh awesome).
87--
wait--you thought di *was* being sarcastic in 40?
i thought she was being sincere again.
in either case, i deny that people's inability to read sarcasm off of text is evidence of any cognitive limitations.
it's just hard. as j.e. said above, any device you like for communicating sincerity and non-sarcasm can ipso facto be put to use as a device for communicating sarcasm.
as a result, even non-dummies can find themselves perplexed.
I hate the phone (which is why texting is teh awesome)
I, too, hate the phone (which is why I've never texted).
87--
sorry, i just re-read you and realize you said something different from what i respond to in 95.
yes; agreed. it is part of what makes some sarcasm *good* that it should be readable to its intended audience.
i thus also agree that there are better and worse ways to write sarcasm.
(i just don't think any of them are foolproof, no matter how smart the intended audience is, but that's not what you claimed.)
96: But texting on the phone is like typing on a computer, only portable! I'm telling you. If you ever tried it, you'd be so hooked.
97--
i sincerely appreciate that, will.
"something technical of baby pigs" is cracking me up.
That the small keyboards are qwertys, even though much too small to touch type on, is evidence of the momentum of standards and the familiar, however sub-optimal.
I'd be willing to learn something better, but I think we're stuck with both qwerty and the phone pad and its letter associations.
93: God help us. I can't even stand a Blackberry. Trying to communicate with an even smaller screen and worse keyboard would be nuts. But I'm old.
The last major technical skill that I learned was touch typing. It was a massive and annoying amount of effort for a very significant payoff.
Since then, I haven't bothered to become good at anything beyond basic technical skills of any medium I use. If I put that amount of learning-time into anything again, I think it will be shorthand. It's the single most useful skill I could have for my current work/life situation.
If you ever tried it, you'd be so hooked.
I don't like being interrupted.
I use texting when:
a) I am in a noisy place
and
b) I have something time-sensitive to communicate and/or I want to communicate with someone who won't be awake/available when I am off the train/back from work
and
c) the topic is something that can be usefully summarized in a few words
This makes for very few text messages.
I don't text much, except when I get into marathon texting sessions with the youngest calasis. Or when I'm trying to get the second youngest calasis to pay her phone bill. "Dude check the bill online and pay me."
"feed meeee I need to be paid...."
"hey if I cancel your line it's cheaper than making you pay."
83: I'm always serious with you, Will. =P
105: That's the beauty of it. Most of the time it's like commenting on unfogged--quick back and forth while you're supposed to be doing something else (sitting with the kids at the park, waiting for the car to get out of the shop). Once in a blue moon someone texts you like they'd call, but I never realize it until hours later when I open my phone up to make a call.
YOU MUST JOIN US.
Max Beerbohm's Enoch Soames, a "literary memoir" of the 1890s, is positively prescient about a man who sells his soul to the devil in order to travel 100 years into the future and see if his works will survive the test of time:
..."I found myself glancing through Nupton's book," he resumed. "Not very easy reading. Some sort of phonetic spelling. All the modern books I saw were phonetic."
"Then I don't want to hear any more, Soames, please."
"The proper names seemed all to be spelt in the old way. But for that I mightn't have noticed my own name."
...I snatched the paper. Soames's handwriting was characteristically dim. It and the noisome spelling and my excitement made me all the slower...
From page 234 of "Inglish Littracher 1890-1900" bi T. K. Nupton, publishd bi th Stait, 1992.
Fr egzarmpl, a riter ov th time, naimed Max Beerbohm, hoo woz stil alive in th twentith senchri, rote a stauri in wich e pautraid an immajnari karrakter kauld "Enoch Soames"--a thurd-rait poit hoo beleevz imself a grate jeneus an maix a bargin with th Devvl in auder ter no wot posterriti thinx ov im! It iz a sumwot labud sattire, but not without vallu az showing hou seriusli the yung men ov th aiteen-ninetiz took themselvz. Nou that th littreri profeshn haz bin auganized az a departmnt of publik servis, our riters hav found their levvl an hav lernt ter doo their duti without thort ov th morro. "Th laibrer iz werthi ov hiz hire" an that iz aul. Thank hevvn we hav no Enoch Soameses amung us to-dai!
I found that by murmuring the words aloud (a device which I commend to my reader) I was able to master them little by little. The clearer they became, the greater was my bewilderment, my distress and horror. The whole thing was a nightmare.
Noisome spelling indeed!
The ability to detect sarcasm, I think, also has alot to do with your preconceived notions of the person talking. People somehow conceive of me as sweet and sincere and thus take whatever I say at face value. (Not here, of course. I mean IRL. I know what you people think of me.) Likewise, I am annoyingly unable to pull off a good double entendre with anyone but a very select few friends because it never occurs to anyone that I could have possible meant that.
YOU MUST JOIN US.
At (a minimum of) $30/month extra out of my budget for something I neither want nor need, I'll pass.
40 is so perfectly ambiguous in tone that it achieves the level of work of art.
The credit for revealing the goat-blowing scandal should go entirely to the commenters. The comment thread itself is hilariously funny: the people commenting perfectly parody the bullshit inside-baseball tone of political coverage these days.
People somehow conceive of me as sweet and sincere and thus take whatever I say at face value. (Not here, of course. I mean IRL. I know what you people think of me.)
The beauty of the internet. We can see your inner mean, sarcastic self.
I'm weirdly arbitrary about . . .
Now who would have guessed that?
Thesis: For statements grave enough that the emoticon :( may be used without irony, a text message is an inappropriate medium.
114: Props to the Yglesias commenters, you betcha. But good for Yglesias (and atrios and others) for picking up this "meme" (to use a word that Kaus favors). I seldom read Yglesias comments, and so never would have heard about it without his help.
The Google search on "Kaus" and "goat" turns up several links, though none as good as the original Yglesias commenters. I hope this spreads.
115: You're such a f'ing a'hole, Will. =)
Di Kotimy:
Your link in 120 is very appropriate.
It was the best of times :), it was the worst of times. :(
Astonishingly enough, Kaus's nonsensical attacks on John Kerry prompted exactly the same meme.
Can you believe that was more than 3 years ago already?
123: And in fact, the concept is part of our collective unconscious, extending to non-western mythologies anthologized over a century ago.
121: Ack. Another advantage to the telephone -- no one ever sees your typos!
Back when I had deaf customers, I developed an awful habit of saying "Go ahead" aloud to my colleagues and other customers for about fifteen minutes after any relay-assisted phone call.
Think that's fun? Try breaking that habit when you're the operator.
Total dealbreaker re suitors, but I'm a little more relaxed on friends. I rarely text or IM though. I text only when I need a silent way to communicate in real time that will get to the other person more certainly than an email (you mean not everyone checks email every two minutes?!). So usually this is to coordinate location meet up, time, etc., but I always use proper words--because I'm anal like that. That said, it limits the friendship to only talking in person if they insist on writing Gr8 C U l8r in an email. I just can't abide by such epistolary heresy when you actually have access to a QWERTY. Use proper capitalization and punctuation, people!
Total deal breaker with a guy though, even if he's writing to say "LOL, OMFG, u r so gr8, luv u, l8r."
Personally, I think that bestiality should always be included within the Defense of Marriage Act, the Equal Rights Amendment and that kind of thing.
128: It's not the intrinsic immorality of goat-blowing that's the issue. It's the hypocrisy.
I think that bestiality should always be included within the Defense of Marriage Act
Children's Book- I have One Daddy and a German Shepherd.
Nora Barnacle is said (by Joyce) to have signed her correspondence "Yrs as b4."
I love emoticons, ascii art, abbreviations, the whole deal. Love, love, love 'em. It helps that I've been able to see them evolve. K-rad became K-bueno (before y'all's time), own became 0wn became 0wnx0r3d became pwn3d became pwned, elite became 31337 became 'leet and 1337, lol became lol@ with timestamps. love 'em all. I've even created my own, to wit: "howr?" as a greeting, "8==):" as an emoticon. Possibly too esoteric for unfoggedeteers, but not unique to me: "re" as a greeting, "kekekeke" for laughter.
People who use them as a simple efficiency, however, disgust me. They should be deployed self-consciously, with wit and grace. Then, and only then, are they t3h b0zz l1ng0.
Snark and I both have been known to say "Zoh my God!"
My friends and I eschew lol and its cousins in in favor of a vastly superior system, which I encourage all of you to adopt in your IMs and texts. There is a convention in one system of discourse transcription in which laughter is rendered with the at sign, with each @ standing for a "syllable" of laughter. Thus,
@ = a short, sharp bark of laughter, or "ha"
@@ or @@@ or @@@@ = more extended laughter
These can also be combined with exclamation points, to suggest surprise. @@@!
134: see, if you keep logs, the timestamps provide a handy searchable reference later; lol@rfts 4:53:12 EDT is very easy to index. And really, what's wrong with lololol if the mood strikes you?
People who use them as a simple efficiency, however, disgust me. They should be deployed self-consciously, with wit and grace.
TITCR
It's not nearly as geeky or charming, is why. And I don't have any trouble searching my logs as it is.
138: kekeke ur l0l t3kn1q 1z w34k sux 8===):
"kekekeke" for laughter.
I've only seen jejejeje. (Not from native English speakers.)
140: yeah this is I think Korean in origin. Kekeke, kakaka, and jejeje are all non-English originally, but got picked up by a subset of English speaking hax0r du0ds.
I've seen kekekeke and for some reason it grates on my nerves like no other. Shut up, you chittering nimrod.
K-rad became K-bueno (before y'all's time)
Ahem: n@@b.
max
['What?']
144: well, c'mon, show and prove, old man. What predates k-rad?
kekekeke makes me think of dolphins. If they have mastered the internet, we're doomed.
Besides, "rad," obviously. God, I love that word. Rad! Rad, rad, rad.
Recorded late-80s social engineering call: "uh, hello sir, we're calling from Operations and we're having some problems with your account. Could you give us your password, please?"
"uh, yeah, that's, uh, B-I-G-T-I-T-S."
"Thanks, sir, we should have you up and running in no time."
*click*
(two octaves higher) "DUDE! His password is 'bigtits'! That's so rad!"
I was in a program that was predominantly international last year. Facebook wall posts had every permutation of onomatopoetic laughter except "hahaha" or "hehehe", which are defensible. Weirdest I've seen:
jajaja/jejeje
xaxaxa/xexexe
yayaya
Also, "ta" for "thank you," which made me want to punch something.
kekekeke would annoy the shit out of me, even more than the above.
Thesis: For statements grave enough that the emoticon :( may be used without irony, a text message is an inappropriate medium.
I've mentioned this before, but I once got a text from an ex-girlfriend that read "U R DEAD 2 ME."
No emoticon, though. Alas.
Also, "ta" for "thank you," which made me want to punch something.
But .. but .. people *do* say "ta". At least they do here - you gonna punch us all?
But .. but .. people *do* say "ta".
With their mouths? To mean "thank you"?
I've heard it to mean goodbye. As an abbreviation for "ta-ta", of course.
150--
here = the uk?
i heard a lot more 'cheers' for thanks than 'ta'.
not sure i ever heard a wild specimen in 5+ years there.
cheers, daily.
this is london, tho, and it's doubtless a regional thing.
I've heard 'ta' for thanks as Australian.
I figured it was an acronym for "thanks, asshole."
Ta means thank you. People say it to babies. It's a bit old-fashioned now, but I hear it and say it occasionally and everyone would know what you meant if you said it. Don't think I've ever heard it as an abbreviation for ta-ta (had to explain to my kids what TTFN meant the other day).
I've also seen /\/\/\/ for laughter. Not my thing. My text laughter is exactly like my real-life laughter: AHAHAhahahahahaha.
(And I grew up in London and now live a whole 40 miles away, which isn't that much even in English miles. I'm going to London tomorrow; will make a point of saying it to any native English-speakers I happen to meet and see if I get any funny looks.)
The thing with 'kekeke,' for me, is that it's very similar to the greek onomatopeia for the noise a frog makes, so it always seems a bit like the person is croaking at you. Awesome!
Despite my previously expressed thoughts on communicating with teenage girls, the actual teenage girl I communicate with via IM (no texting yet) often uses capitalization and punctuation and rarely uses acronyms (mostly just lol, which she uses a lot).
Probably only because you're so funny, teo.
Opposite to the post, can I judge someone if they seem to have an account with every single trendy social website?
Or, if that's not enough for you, their de.licio.us links to steampunk erotica?
As already said, 'ta' just IS a shortened form of 'thank you' in the UK. My grandparents would say it. It's not youthful slang.
I distinctly remember hearing "ta" fairly frequently in the UK in my various visits and stays there, and remember reading it in novels before that. Am I incorrect in my impression that perhaps it's more commonly used by northerners? And the working class?
165: Can I confess that I only just now realized that de.licio.us is a play on "delicious"?
Can I confess that I only just now realized that de.licio.us is a play on "delicious"?
Only if you want to appear incredibly thick to the rest of us.
Whenever I see "lol", I assume it's the polite usage for someone who insists on making jokes long past the point of humor.
169: Yes, I'm sure otherwise that would have slipped right past you.