When I first got online and started instant messaging with people, I though “netspeak” was pretty cool. I could communicate sarcasm with “LOL,” shock with an "OMG,’’ or I could let them know I was going into the other room momentarily with the ever-popular “BRB.” I even see those same abbreviations show up on message boards such as this one, and online articles. I even read an article online (the exact URL escapes me; search the Fark archives for a link) saying that LOL’s and the like have been showing up in middle- and high-school papers.
I know there have been plenty of threads referencing l33t-speak (or however the hell it is supposed to look), but I have to wonder: how many of you use “LOL” in instant messages, e-mails, and message boards? And has it become such a big part of your life that you slip up and use it in real life? I find it hard to believe that someone would actually say either “LOL” or “laughing out loud” in a real-time conversation. I have actually cut down significantly on my online usage of “LOL,” opting instead for the more sinister “hehehe” when someone amuses me.
I’ve replied to a funny email or two with ‘lol’ before. It’s just so efficient. Of course, I work with people who think their monitor is their computer, so the majority of them have no clue what ‘lol’ means.
Sure I netspeak. On the net.
I will use lol (although rofl is more my flavour) as well as many other abbreviations. Handy for when you wish to let the person who can neither see nor hear you know that you found their comment entertaining. Obviously putting such terms into homework papers or other documents is as inapropriate as writing “I went to the shops w/ John” which by far predates “netspeak” I would imagine.
I use them on-line, but try like hell to keep them out of my day to day speech, most e-mails, and message board posts. I have been guilty of using them while talking to Mr. Athena after a long Everquest session, however. It makes me feel nerdy.
That said, in things like Chat rooms and Everquest (which is a bit like a chat room), abbreviations like LOL, BRB, OMG, are incredibly useful. They add some character to messages, and the abbreviatons are necessary for speed reason. On-line games especially need the speed. IE:
OMG, 3 monsters headed our way!
is much faster to type than the non-abbreviated version, and the OMG lends a bit of personality and emotion to the message.
Yeah, I use them, especially in games and on AIM. We’ve even added some, such as RTG? (ready to go?) when either my husband or I are wondering if the other is ready to leave the office (we work for the same company). I use BRB and AFK frequently, LOL less so, and BTW and IIRC so often I’ve practically forgotten that they can be spelled out. I even use BTW in office emails.
TMI is something I actually speak. “That was definitely TMI,” or the ever popular: throwing your hands over your ears screaming, “TMI! TMI!”
I use LOL and OMG and WTF and BRB, BBIAB, BTW, etc etc etc all the time.
I realized I spent too much time on the computer when I would handwrite notes to my friend in class using LOL, OMG, WTF, etc.
I’d even throw in a little “:P”
All the time in IM (Instant Messaging). Occassionally in emails, but only to those you know what I mean.
I also play Dark Age of Camelot, which as noted above really requires you to use abbreviations as you just don’t have time to type it out. These games have LOTs of abbreviations - you’d just type “afk bio brb” to let people know you were Away From Keyboard Bathroom Be Right Back
There was a period of time where I’d be playing DAoC so much that I’d start typing channel-selection commands into my IMs. DAoC has several channels or frequencies you can speak on that determine who sees what you write. For instance, you type “/g how are you” to say ‘how are you’ to anyone in your group. Well, I’d start typing /g in my IMs.
All the time in IM (Instant Messaging). Occassionally in emails, but only to those you know what I mean.
I also play Dark Age of Camelot, which as noted above really requires you to use abbreviations as you just don’t have time to type it out. These games have LOTs of abbreviations - you’d just type “afk bio brb” to let people know you were Away From Keyboard Bathroom Be Right Back
There was a period of time where I’d be playing DAoC so much that I’d start typing channel-selection commands into my IMs. DAoC has several channels or frequencies you can speak on that determine who sees what you write. For instance, you type “/g how are you” to say ‘how are you’ to anyone in your group. Well, I’d start typing /g in my IMs.
Since it usually takes a lot to get me to really LOL, I communicate my amusement by using “SOL”. I invented the term in my more innocent days and didn’t know the alternate “real” meaning for a long time. Among my friends it doesn’t mean “s**t outta luck” but “smiling out loud”. Strangers get confused if I don’t explain.
I was on the jury of a rape trial, and some of the testimony centered around this phrase. The male and female were talking on the phone, and he brought up some sexual subject (it was their first conversation), and she said (according to both of them), “Whoa, hold on, TMI!”
The acronym had to be explained to the court, though.
What’s always puzzled me is the subset of heavy netspeak users who are responsible for output like “lolololololololol.” Seeing such things always makes me feel vaguely uneasy, like a Lovecraft protagonist finding a book full of pop-up five-angled triangles and so forth.
