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In high school I took shorthand, though I didn’t do very well with it.  I thought the symbols were to unusual to substitute for words, especially when the symbol shapes have nothing to do with the words they represent.  Now it seems that we have rewritten the English language with the acronyms we use to text and instant message.

As a child, I remember writing letters to our relatives.   My mother would proofread the letters for spelling, punctuation and general grammar.  At work I noticed some shortcuts used when coworkers email and use the interoffice communications such as “u” for you, since texting and messaging has become second nature to us. I wonder if we have decreased our attention to accurate spelling and proper grammar use. ? The question mark, by the way, I found out from my age generation boyfriend, means “ I don’t understand what you mean”.  Fortunately, when he texted me back a question mark all by itself, I asked myself “what?” and –whew!- I understood.

There is a large variety of acronyms we use when texting and instant messaging. For example, BFF for “best friends forever”and yw for “your welcome”.  We also use letters and numbers such as c for see and 2 for to, too and two (wow!).  Personally, I have adapted to using “ur” for you are, you’re or your when texting my boyfriend-also by the way both of us are heading for our 50’s.  Sometimes I put a comma between the u and r to feel like I am using a level of correct grammar.  But, what the heck,(wth) he knows what I mean so I end up using “ur”.

I was surprised to find websites that list hundreds of acronyms under each letter of the English alphabet.  It looks like we have developed a whole new language.  LOL was a surprise to me.  I had self assessed it to mean lots of luck-which is what I need to translate this entire language.  Of course laugh out loud is what others may do when they hear my interpretation of this English short-speaking.  I actually learned about 1 4 3 for I love you, from watching the movie “Gracie’s Choice”.  My 20’s year old son told me of his girlfriend feelings by referring to 1 4 3.  Amazing, I just thought we could say it to each other, but this message is being typed into a small space and fast. Oh well ! 

I think the amazing thing about the hundreds of acronyms there are, is that I could probably write most of this manuscript with them.  Personally, I have to be told what the acronyms stand for, or put them in the context of the written text to interpret and understand their meaning.  Which, I believe, was how we were taught to learn to read and understand words in the first place.

GF- My interpretation being – Go Figure –