Short-cut for Chatting and Texting

[Alfonso]

I don't know about you, but I get annoyed when people use short-cuts when chatting and texting. I don't really say anything but I really gets me. They change what to wat, you to u, great to gr8, wait to w8, good morning to G-AM. Knw wat i myn? What do you think about this 21 century trend?

[SpiralArchitect]

Yep. How lazy can one get. Is it really going to take that match time to write you instead of u?

The worst offenders are idiots using words like 'mah'. People, 'my' is actually a letter shorter than that travesty.

[LauraM]

Yes, I find the short-cuts annoying as well.  It really seems counterproductive.  I find it much faster and easier to just use the auto-complete function on my phone than to try to remember or think of these short-cuts!

I do think many of them are unnecessary.  Abbreviations are fine, but it can be taken to an extreme making it difficult for a recipient to decipher what are sometimes idiosyncratic abbreviations.  I think it can wind up being a bad habit, such laziness.  People may eventually forget how to spell properly. 

But as to the larger issue, it leads one to wonder what this is doing to our collective language skills when communication becomes so constrained like that. 

[pxyc]

Now that I have autocorrect on my phone it just seems pointless to make myself look dumber by using shortcuts. I never used them, even when I didn't have autocorrect. I can understand how they can be useful but why not just include the extra two letters and make your message look better and more understandable?

[thekernel]

Not only do I have a full keyboard on my phone, but most words are finished for me as I type it in. I couldn't have poor spelling if I tried. It's actually slower to use shortcuts like "gr8" and "l8er".

[wander_n_wonder]

Yeah, I also get annoyed with those shortcuts in texts and emails.  It leads to a lot of misunderstanding.  I think it's still better to type the whole word instead of letting the receiver guess what you're really trying to say.

[pcgamer]

I am so obsessed with the English that I use the language properly even when I am chatting with my friends.

[kitkat0124]

If I'm chatting or texting using my native language, there are times that I use the short  version, for the reason that a simple word in english can have a 2-3 words translation in our language. If I'm texting or chatting in english I always use the full text of words.

[Miya]

I'm okay with my friends using short-cuts when they're not overdoing it. I can understand using a few short-cuts, but i dnt wan them 2 b typing lik dis. I know grammar and spelling isn't important when texting, but it does get annoying when too many short-cuts are used.

[spanish]

It drives me crazy when people cut there spellings or adds something that should not be there, l think it's lazyness on their part and that's why l keep correcting all my friends that write like that.

[pxyc]

It drives me crazy when people cut there spellings or adds something that should not be there, l think it's lazyness on their part and that's why l keep correcting all my friends that write like that.

Correcting them can get annoying. Don't do it every text, they'll be like "oh my god (or omg ) I'm not gonna text you anymore if you don't stop correcting me"

I know that girls especially HATE being wrong, so..

[Daedalus]

It's actually called 'SMS language', 'text speak', or 'txt-speak' (or something similar). I find it annoying in words like gr8, or u instead of you, but I do use abbreviations like afaik, iirc, imo, simply because that's more accepted.

[wander_n_wonder]

Yep. How lazy can one get. Is it really going to take that match time to write you instead of u?

The worst offenders are idiots using words like 'mah'. People, 'my' is actually a letter shorter than that travesty.

Oh my!  We get annoyed about exactly the same thing!  Sometimes, the supposedly shortcut word is actually longer, such as in your example.  It's really pointless.  When I see that, I would think that people are just trying to be cute and that's really annoying!

[thekernel]

It's actually called 'SMS language', 'text speak', or 'txt-speak' (or something similar). I find it annoying in words like gr8, or u instead of you, but I do use abbreviations like afaik, iirc, imo, simply because that's more accepted.

I don't mind short-hand when used in that matter (as long as I understand it haha). I pretty much grew up with "lol" embedded in my internet/cellular conversation.

[mareebaybay]

I kind of like short texting. It makes conversing with someone much easier. I really don't think of short texting as a negative thing. I don't even mind when people short text me, because I short text people as well.

[resilientsage29]

I know people are trying to make things go faster and conserve time but short cuts in text messaging, etc. are really annoying. Sometimes people just resort to it because they honestly don't know how to spell some words. But seriously, it will not help you learn if you don't know what is correct in the first place.

[Trellum]

That kind of things annoy me so much, I take my time to write full words... why can't they take the time to do the same??? 

You should see what kind of things are happening to my mother language, young people are chaging it a lot!  I've heard rumors over here, people no longer using the ''h'', because the ''h'' in spanish is a mute one. So a lot people (even the ones writing for Yahoo!  Mexico) are doing it, not all of them, but some.  Some people defend this by saying that a language must ''evolve'' in order to survive.  RIGHT!

[sayitwell]

I have no problem with the shortcuts during texting/e-mails and even in person conversations.  It is all about what you are communicating, not how you do it.  Function over form every time for me.  I use shortcuts in texts all the time!  Get with it, this is 2013.

[justusforus]

I prefer not to get the texts with all the short cuts.  I actually do not like texts, because people even if they don't short cut the words often short cut the thoughts.  Without hearing a person's inflection, I have often mistaken whether a person was angry or not (i.e. Why do you do that?  could be interpreted as WHY did you do that? or Why did you do THAT? and so on.  The more people rely on a device, I believe they lose prowess.  Remember calculators came about and no one can add a column of numbers.  If shortening or changing words continues, will they be able to spell or form a proper sentence?

[limon]

I use phrase acronyms, like FYI, IIRC, IMHO, for brevity. But in general I dislike text-speak, and type out full words.

That said, one of the cleverest things to come out of the internet age (I think, maybe it predates it and I just never knew) is the used of the '@' symbol to signify both genders in Spanish words. So for example 'vosotro@s' in place of 'vosotros y vosotras' or 'vosotros/as'

[Eudora13]

I don't mind short cuts as long as the pronunciation of the word is not altered. You can be written as 'u', or be as 'b' and the like. But the minute I see things like "mah", "gal", "tym", "ppl", "cz"...ughh. It makes me really angry and annoyed at the person! It irritates my mouth to work at those awful pronunciation!

[GetFresh]

I strongly agree as well. I used to do it until I accidentally used a couple of words in my paper. I didn't proofread or anything so I had some points deducted. So now, whenever I type something I use proper English and words.

[zambothegreat]

It depends on what it is that needs to be said. If it's a text that is well under 140 characters, then yeah, use actual words. But if you use "u" instead of "you" just so you don't go over the character limit, it's fine. And acronyms like iirc, afaik, brb, etc. are completely ok, imo.

[sos]

I always get the same irritation , I think the reason for me is I have made an efforet to make sure that my spelling is impecable. However, I think the trend is coming about due to people not wanting to think about spelling  and genarally they are Lazy.

[Alfonso]

Looks like most people find it irritating or annoying. I just wanna share, I got a text from my friend a couple days ago. R u goin 2 x-tian's party l8r rply asap (Are you going to Christian's party later? Reply asap.). Took me a few second to figure out what he was saying.