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Yreka
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#1
Old 07-25-2007, 01:43 AM

In recent years, a large chunk of the internet has become pretty much filled with chat speak and abbreviations. It's one of the reasons i'm here on Mene (seeing as most of the people i've met here seem to be literate). I've been trying to figure out why this growth has occured. It seems that it had the beginnings in some people who thought that it was really clever that the letter "u" sounded just like the word "you" and were to lazy to type in the other two letters. But why has it spread so fast? I remember that just a few years back, I was able to have nice discussions with proper grammar nearly everywhere I went. Even four years ago (when I was 11 and started using the internet for stuff other than games), it was better than it is now.


Discuss:

The growth of chat speak.
Why has it grown so fast?
Why do you think people find it appealing to not type out their sentences in full?
Anything else pertaining to this topic.


s0fi
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#2
Old 07-25-2007, 01:50 AM

I thought it all started with Hackers then everyone wanted
to become "1337" since these hackers used abeviations for a lot
of words (lol,wtf,n00b etc.)but it might not be true that's only what
i think...

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#3
Old 07-25-2007, 01:52 AM

Some people don't type that fast so the abbreviations help them reply faster. Honestly, some of the things they type I really can't understand D:

I mean, I get brb and ttyl but I often don't get the rest. Darn my internet lingo lol

Yreka
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#4
Old 07-25-2007, 01:56 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by s0fi
I thought it all started with Hackers then everyone wanted
to become "1337" since these hackers used abeviations for a lot
of words (lol,wtf,n00b etc.)but it might not be true that's only what
i think...
Thing is that hackers only got that reputation after chat speak was created likely. Besides, who thought of "lol" being "laugh out loud?" Who would type out "laugh out loud" into their posts. I get that one. But where did it originate. Not hackers. The whole leet speak part might have originated from them, but not really the whole chat speak which is the issue I made this about...

Romance: Maybe so. I get that point of view seeing as I know a few people who have to look at the keyboard and plink out each key every time. That could answer part of the spreading. Still trying to figure out where it came from though. Ah well.

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#5
Old 07-25-2007, 02:03 AM

Some chatspeak is kind of handy. There are only a few things like that, and they're extremely common. (lol, brb, etc) However, I can't stand people who shorten things so ridiculously there's only two letters per word. People who just make their thoughts into nonsense are even more annyoing. There's nothing I hate more than people who type things like "oMggfwtfilykeuaidusfjalkjakdf!11oneone" >_<

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#6
Old 07-25-2007, 02:23 AM

I was reading through your topics and I too wonder why people can't write out a sentence w/o some sort or...

LOL or WTF or BRB....

I mean its not so hard to write laugh out loud and what, but I guess people want to move so fast in these years they want to make even speaking easier. Sooner or later the English lang. itself is going to be shorter. Who knows what will happen in the future years. Will our lang. be so shorted will we still even understand it? Don't know but I hope it doesn't get any worse ^^;;;;

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#7
Old 07-25-2007, 02:29 AM

when you have a device like a computer, you must remember two things:
1. we are only smart enough as a species to enable our laziness
2. lazy people don't want to waste time on things like proper spelling and grammar-they want to do things quickly.

that's why i get offended when people use chatspeak while talking to me. they are essentially saying that they are in too much of a hurry to have a true conversation with me, and that i am not important enough for them to bother typing out their words. it's insulting and utterly demeaning.

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#8
Old 07-25-2007, 02:31 AM

I personally find it much harder to type "u" than you. It doesn't compute in my brain correctly, and the little voice inside of my head makes it sound like I'm retarded whilst typing it.

I can't stand chat speak. The only time I ever use it is if I need to step away from the computer AT THAT SECOND. I will of course say "brb" or "ttyl". If I don't wish to offend a person's ears with swearing, I will say "WTF" and "OMG". That's about the extent of it.

Otherwise, chat speak annoys me. In fact, it down right irks me. If I have to talk to someone that "types lik dis" and asks "how r u? ya im good"... I just can't connect with them. And unfortunately, I tend to not want to talk to people because of it. Why can't people just show off and express the grammar skills they learned in school?

I've never encountered a person on Menewsha who types like a true chat speaker, come to think of it. o.o;

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#9
Old 07-25-2007, 02:39 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by slave2therapy TB
when you have a device like a computer, you must remember two things:
1. we are only smart enough as a species to enable our laziness
2. lazy people don't want to waste time on things like proper spelling and grammar-they want to do things quickly.

that's why i get offended when people use chatspeak while talking to me. they are essentially saying that they are in too much of a hurry to have a true conversation with me, and that i am not important enough for them to bother typing out their words. it's insulting and utterly demeaning.
I get where you're coming from on this. It may have started off like that, but it has kinda transgressed to the point where people don't care about the amount of time they save from abbreivating words and such. It may have started to save time, and the influence has stayed, making you feel like you do. I kinda just get annoyed by it, but hadn't thought about the time in that sense before. Thank you for bringing a new perspective onto the issue. :3

Hoshino: o.O Wow. I usually just put in "bye" or "toodles" when I need to go right then. It's acctually faster for me than to put in something like "brb" or "ttyl." I'm just weird that way.
Meh, I use "WTF" and "OMG" every so often. But "FTW" works better for me and "OMG" is used only in repetitions for amusement. :]
Come to think of it, I havn't found anyone who uses complete chat speak on Mene so far also.

Chi
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#10
Old 07-25-2007, 03:15 AM

I forgot "FTW". I use that if I'm feeling geeky or sarcastic. xD Like, "Cleaning FTW!!"

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#11
Old 07-25-2007, 03:32 AM

I can't really get myself to type in chat speak. It's difficult for me and it takes me a lot longer to type all that out than the actual spelling of something.

Of course, there are times when I use "WTF", "OMG" or "FTW" just to use them. Most of the time I'm ranting or not being serious though.

I remember when I started using the internet back in the day people were really into abbreviations. I used AOL and things like "lol", "brb", etc. were really big. I admit I used to have a problem with lol-ing far too much. :oops:

Chat speak is kind of amusing to me, but too much gives me a headache trying to decode it all.

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#12
Old 07-25-2007, 03:40 AM

Well, i see nothing wrong with chatspeak. Actually, i don't know why people hate it so much. It's kinda fun to read and type to me ^^ I spend about 8 hours at school per day, talking and writing in perfect English, so i would understand why people want a break from that.

xD And you know what? For the chat speak people, it's actually annoying to read all typed out sentences :lol: Just because you don't like it, it doesn't mean chat speak is wrong. Before you point fingers at people being stupid and lazy and illiterate, maybe you should judge people a bit less? It's annoying but really, it's not wrong.

I know a person who curse on every one of her sentences when talking. But she was the top student, the smartest in the class, great person to hang around. Hehe, cursing is not wrong unless you curse at someone. Chatspeak is the same, it does no one harm. People that have problems with it are really the ones causing this whole controversy here ^^

I've seen chatspeak bashings, now that's just pure bullying. If you don't like it, don't read it. No one is making you talk to the person =]

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#13
Old 07-25-2007, 03:56 AM

  • I have Noticed recently that a lot of people are moving away from chat speak or at least the people of decent age I have seen spam posts that people make that says something in Leet but people tend to ignore them

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#14
Old 07-25-2007, 04:00 AM

I see it everywhere. The people I talk to over the internet are getting increasingly more stupid when it comes to that. I can't handle instant message conversations anymore, nor do I ever text on my cell due to it being harder to read the other person's response. Even my sister does that ><
I think it started when people were just trying to be cool with their words and shortened them to go along with indirect peer pressure expressed through typing incorrectly. Whether or not that theory is correct, it's still live as one. People over time seem to depend on shortened words, as if it'll give them a break to type out a few more letters here and there.

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#15
Old 07-25-2007, 04:15 AM

The way I see it, the growth of chatspeak is really just the English language growing and morphing to fit to the internet.
Most people I know that talk that way have good grammar and make decent grades in English - they just don't see the need to make things more elaborate than they have to be. Evolution of the language~ <3
[Funny how I can type that out and still hate chatspeak when I read it...]

What irks me is when this sort of speech is used out of place, creeping into reports and such... my inner language-preservation-freak dies a little bit every time it sees wtf or lol in class. ._.'

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#16
Old 07-25-2007, 04:20 AM

Well, apparently some people think chatspeak make people stupid ^^ "Only stupid people chatspeak, stupid people because they chatspeak, Themore stupid they are the more they use chatspeak"

It has nothing to do with intelligent! News flash!

People are not stupid because they use chatspeak.

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#17
Old 07-25-2007, 04:27 AM

No, it doesn't. You're right on that one, Heart.

But, if all they use is chatspeak and never ever do they use anything even remotely resembling a constructed sentence, how smart can one assume them to be?

Not very.
I usually try and keep intelligence and English in separate cases, but on the internet the two are one in the same.

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#18
Old 07-25-2007, 04:39 AM

nah, just because people view chatspeakers as stupid, that doenst make them stupid ^^ People assumes chatspeakers are stupid, that does not mean chatspeakers are really stupid. People -think- the trend of chatspeak is stupid, but that is their opinions and still it does not make chatspeaking really stupid. Stupid means lack of intelligent, from a dictionary. So that's not really a word to describe them. They might be lazy, true, -or- following trends, true, not certainly not stupid ^^ -just- because they chatspeak.

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#19
Old 07-25-2007, 04:49 AM

Yeah. Little things like OMG and WTF and FTW and the like thrown in are ok, but sometimes seeing my in real life friends type... -Shudder- And they were all in the same typing class as me! I just don't see why they should do things like that. They just reply that they're lazy. Too lazy to have an actual conversation? Puh-lease. That's why I never invite my friends to websites that are community related. D'8

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#20
Old 07-25-2007, 05:28 AM

In a previous incarnation of my employment with my current company I supported 600+ overseas agents over the phone and through aim (I was answer desk essentially). When these people would talk through aim it was much easier for them to use chatspeak rather than spell things out. English is obviously not their first language. In most cases it made more sense than if they had tried to spell it all out.

As someone pointed out use of chatspeak does not make the person stupid or ignorant but I also think that it depends on how it is used. If it is used to simply beg for gold or items or to flame others, that screams ignorant NOOB. If it is something like "my dh needs computer, bbl8tr" that doesn't say Noob to me. Granted, I am one that does not like to read chatspeak and even coming up with that little tiny piece was hard for me. I'm wordy and I prefer to type stuff out.

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#21
Old 07-25-2007, 12:39 PM

@Heart
I never said that people are stupid if they use chatspeak. I have real-life friends who use it that are actually very intelligent in real life.
My post was based on my opinion, and I respect yours as well. ^_^ I just can't connect with someone on a personal level if I have to work to decipher what they're saying to me.
Like you said though, I'm sure some users out there don't like reading large posts. One group to one bowl, another to another. xD

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#22
Old 07-25-2007, 01:28 PM

I almost never use chat speak.. I have never just wrote u instead of you in a conversation and I find it very annoying that people write chat speak!

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#23
Old 07-25-2007, 04:00 PM

Chatspeak drives me nuts. I'm a bit of a nut about grammar and spelling, and chatspeak goes against all that I stand for. I see no point in typing abbreviations when one can simply save the vowels and learn how to type the whole words instead. It would only take an extra second, or a few at most, and most things are really not so urgent that someone would have to type out something like "idk idc bbl!" and leave.

Do I use chatspeak? No. I never use chatspeak. My parents use chatspeak more than I do because I so vehemently hate it.

Chatspeak in itself makes a person seem less intelligent. It is not that they are less intelligent, but it tends to give off the impression that the person just is not very smart, especially as they start piling on more and more unnecessary abbreviations. However, chatspeak combined with horrid spelling is what drives me up a wall.

Unfortunately, a lot of people (not all!) who use chatspeak can't seem to spell properly either. One of my classmates a year ago typed to me in a mixture of chatspeak and horrid spelling to ask me a question, and it was so horrid that I could not even decipher what they were trying to ask me. I had to send it to a friend of mine and see if they could figure out what she wanted to know. They, too, were absolutely clueless.

It also makes someone seem very lazy if used to often. Is it really that hard to type out a word or two? I can understand a few abbreviations, or even a lot of them if you're just kidding around, but to be used consistently in conversation just seems very, very lazy.

Have any of you seen people speak abbreviations? A few people I know now say, "LOL!," instead of actually laughing. They'll look amused and everything, but that's what they say. I also hear a lot of "OMG!" and "J/K!" It's getting rather disturbing.

(( Wow, this post is long. :D Hope it doesn't bore you. ))

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#24
Old 07-25-2007, 04:47 PM

The overuse of chat speak can get ridiculously annoying.

I can sorta understand why people would rather write 'wtf' as opposed to the alternative, or even not bothering to capitalize I's (one of my pet peeves) sometimes, but it's sorta hit an all-time low grammar wise. A lot of people I know are using a mix between l33t-talk and chat speak which is practically incomprehensible. It doesn't deem them stupid, they're just caught up in another trend which irritates anyone doesn't follow the wave.

I only usually get mad if they use it in real life. 'Lol' instead of laughing or 'Brb' instead of be right back. .___.

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#25
Old 07-25-2007, 09:05 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by H_e_a_r_t
Well, apparently some people think chatspeak make people stupid ^^ "Only stupid people chatspeak, stupid people because they chatspeak, Themore stupid they are the more they use chatspeak"

It has nothing to do with intelligent! News flash!

People are not stupid because they use chatspeak.

I always assumed it was just lazyness.
(although extreme chatspeak is hard to do @[email protected] )
I think abbreviations like "brb" "lol" and stuff like that is fine. But when I need a freakin chatspeak dictionary to decipher someones post, that's when I get annoyed

(maybe people think chatspeak is only used by the dumb is because n00bs use it, and everyone associates n00bs with stupidty? )


 


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