Of roflcopters and ‘WTF’s

Hey, sup? How r u? 1 of my wrst pet peeves r peeps that
use IM abbrevs in spoken convos.

Has society devolved to the point where we must abbreviate
spoken words?

The absolute worst is when people actually say “LOL”
out loud. “LOL” stands for “laugh out loud.” You are not
laughing out loud if you say “LOL.” If you say the acronym
after you laugh, you’re just being redundant. “LOLZ” or
pronouncing it as “loll” is just as dumb.

“ROFL” is pretty annoying, but it’s fun to say (it rhymes
with “waffle”), and the Internet game Roflcopter is amazingly
addictive. Again, if you say the word out loud, you probably
aren’t actually “rolling on the floor laughing.” How would
that even work if you were typing? If you were watching
the video of The Roots reacting to viewing “2 Girls, 1 Cup”
for the first time, I could understand rolling on the floor
laughing. But do you type “ROFL” from the floor? Do you
wait until you recover from your fit?

“OMG” stands for “oh my god,” or “oh my goodness” if
you just came out of a ’50s TV show. If you’re going to risk
being sacrilegious, you might as well go the full Monty and
say “god.” If there’s anything God hates more than having
his name taken in vain, it’s having it abbreviated – unless
it’s G-d.

“JK” kills me. It’s usually used in conversation when you
already knew the person was kidding. “President Trani is a
total hottie. JK you guys,” someone might say, causing the
whole room to ROFL and LOL hysterically. This makes
sense in a chat room or text setting, because – in written
form – it is sometimes hard to distinguish whether a person
is being sarcastic. In verbal conversation, tone of voice and
body language speak volumes. Just think of how hard it
must be for Stephen Hawking to tell a joke. The term “just
kidding” is fine, but you don’t need to abbreviate it in a
spoken conversation.

“BTW” is an awful abbreviation. I don’t even like “by the
way” in its full form. In the normal happenings of modern-day
conversation, people should not need to use segueing terms
such as “by the way.” Plus, “By The Way” is the name of
one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ few bad songs. And BTW,
I refuse to refer to them as RHCP. Either call the band the
“Chili Peppers” for short, or move to Zanzibar.

“WTF” is one of my personal vices. Although I realize
it is just an abbreviation of some perfectly good words of
the English language, I also take into account that I might
not be able to say, “What the f-?” in certain company
(especially if there is a chance of little ones around). The
F-word is a personal favorite of mine, but dropping the
F-bomb around little ears could be trouble. “WTF” is also
very prominently featured in “The End of the World,” one
of my favorite YouTube.com videos, so I can not hate the
term too much.

“TTYL” is another abbreviation that does not make sense
even within an IM conversation. In text-speak, you are not
actually talking. It is, however, a good way to get out of
speaking with someone you don’t really want to talk to.
Jailbait69: So I’m having problems w my bf again.

THX1138: Sry g2g. ttyl.

So W/E you abb. your IM convos w/, keep it out of spoken
convos. OMG, it is so annoying; it makes me want to hurt
peeps. JK! I knew u were all like, “WTF, this guy’s NGRY.”
I’ll BRB. JK, I’m back! Sry, hope that made you LOL n ROFL.

THX for reading my article! TTYL!