Some abbreviations are necessary on the internet. You can’t always tell sarcasm from serious comments, so a smiley or LOL helps fight ignorance.
But , dammit, —how hard is it to type “I am not a” ???
It’s only 6 keystrokes more than IANA, and it gives you that wonderful , smug feeling of knowing that you are communicating intelligently in the English language.
Fighting ignorance is easier when you do it coherently and with good grammar; You can actually read and understand other peoples’ comments that way.
Gee, that felt good to get off my chest.
I W8 4 Ur answers. (see, I just proved my point.)
I guess everyone has a different threshold. “IANAL” or “IANAD” doesn’t make me blink, for two reasons: One, it’s just a pro-forma disclaimer. Two, it at least expands into some form of english expression.
“LOL,” on the other hand, really doesn’t fit into the flow of normal discourse. You could type “Ha!” in the same amount of time and get the intended thing across. You can only read “LOL” two ways, either expand it into “Laugh out loud,” which is jarring:
“What he was doing in my pajamas, I have no idea.”
“Laugh out loud!”
Uh, okay.
Usually, though, I parse it as the sort of vocalization made by someone that, while of a cheerful disposition, is profoundly retarded.
I like it because it’s only ancillary to the dsicussion, and abreviating it allows the eyes to quickly absorb the intent and then move on to the meat of the matter. YMMV.
IANAD isn’t annoying. What’s annoying is when someone types, for instance, “IANAZ” and then follows it up immediately with “(I am not a zoologist)”. What’s the point?
For the record, I couldn’t understand your title. I get it NOW, but it was very difficult to parse. And, btw*, you don’t need a capital after a semi-colon.
*I’m just using this to tweak you. I almost never use acronyms here. I type for a living, and I figure I can always use the practice.
From a time perspective possibly but from a keystroke perspective, no. “Ha!” requires two hit-and-releases on the shift key where LOL only requires one. It’s more complicated to type and thus may take longer.
Many people mercifully have gotten away from this and just do “IANAZoologist.”
Yeah, that’s good English. For all that is holy to Og and Shakespeare–if you can type “zoologist”, then you can type “I am not a”.
IANA is just plain ugly.
I admit some abbreviations throw me off, such as IIRC and IRL. I have to think a moment before I realize what they mean. I only just this week realized that MMP means Monday Morning what? Prattling? Palaver? Well, I’ve almost got it.
While I don’t use many internet abbreviations myself, I don’t mind them much. I like LOL because, to me, it denotes the sound of laughter. “Ha, ha, ha!” is cumbersome to type and just “Ha!” is usually meant to suprise someone or to express cynacism.
Besides, at least you don’t see too much Leet Speek here. Now that’s something worth a rant about its use and the user’s intelligence!
