I understand that it doesn’t pay to use long words when you have a limit of 160 characters to write a message, so it’s OK to abbreviate words when writing texts.

I also understand that if someone spends most of their time writing in ‘text speak’, it’s natural to extend that style of writing to other non-text scenarios, especially if that person knows that the person who they are writing to also uses (and understands) text speak.

But where I have an issue is where someone who does NOT know their audience in non-text scenarios uses text speak to communicate their ideas. This practice seems especially common with younger Nigerians. Is it the case that these people are not aware that not everyone may easily understand what they are saying (thus reducing their audience), or that such style of writing may not be appropriate for the occasion?

Or maybe I’m just being old fashioned, and in the end, evry1 wil b usin txt spk.

Lol.
Txt speak is faster and easier juo, especially as we are not writing exams or publishing in sms

The populariy of Blackberry phones is helping to fuel this habit of short writing. Many become so attached to short-writing that they don’t know when to switch to Long-hand anymore.
@Tola…you are not old fashioned oh…just conscious of a trend thats gaining momentum

@Kaycee, instead of laughing they say ‘lol’.

Interesting responses!

@Afronuts, I plead the fifth on your question as to who inspired the thread. But just to be clear, I don’t mind people using text speak; I just think that people should use it appropriately in the right scenarios, and they should be aware that there are consequences to using it wrongly.

@Jaywriter, out of curiosity, were you aware that it might not be right to use abbreviated words in an examination?

@Kaycee, the day I hear someone actually say ‘L-O-L’ when the really mean to laugh, then I know that the human race is doomed.

@Tola I knew it was wrong oh. It was as a result of my addiction to text messaging. He let it go before but that year it was so much from almost the whole class that he ran mad.

Since then I changed to T9 and typed complete words.

@Afronuts T9 mode in text messaging is just the input method you activate. Only on the regular small mobile phones.

If you wanna type ‘c’, do you tap the ‘abc’ button thrice?

Ah, T9… I kind of miss it since I upgraded to using a smartphone with the full qwerty keyboard.

The thing I didn’t like about it was that you couldn’t easily edit it to remove a word that you had mistakenly typed. This meant that the mistakenly entered word would keep on popping up as a suggestion when you pressed certain keys.

Some people don’t really know why they use such abbreviations. They just follow the crowd. Sometimes, I’m chatting with a stranger, then I ask: ‘so what’s your last name?’ And the person replies with a lol. Some will even mix different abbreviations they’ve seen and use it together in an off point matter.

While some use it to save time and economise space, others use it to feel among the internet/computer community/age.

Some people don’t really know why they use such abbreviations. They just follow the crowd. Sometimes, I’m chatting with a stranger, then I ask: ‘so what’s your last name?’ And the person replies with a lol. Some will even mix different abbreviations they’ve seen and use it together in an off point matter.

While some use it to save time and economise space, others use it to feel among the internet/computer community/age.