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Instant messaging lingo, although a handy shortcut in the e-world, makes me wish that the Internet was never even thought up. Sure its all good and fun and you get your point across over exhausting your fingers. But when that lingo crawled out of the computer and into peoples mouths in normal, everyday, non-electronic conversation, thats where the fun stops. Use of Acronyms to address machinery (i.e. SCUBA, RADAR, LASER) and Police jargon (ETA, B&E, TOD) is respectable, efficient, and above all else, cool as hell. But when I tell a joke and the person listening to me tells me that he is "LOL", I find it hard not to smack the persons' head off his shoulders. "Of course you're laughing out loud, idiot, I can hear you! What, are you simple?", is my natural, immediate response, followed by leaving and never talking to the person ever again. If I told the joke online and he responed with a "LOL" then that wouldn't bother me as much, but to tell me to my face that he is "Laughing Out Loud" makes me want to hate myself. I was blown away when my cousin used this lingo on me. He said "TTYL" to me and I nearly had an aneurysm.

"T-T-Y-L" in this electronically deformed mutant language means "Talk To You Later." After giving him a wedgie that would take weeks to heal, I made him promise to never use this lingo in conversation to anyone for the rest of his natural life. Justice was served.
I guess the thing that bothers my the most about this is that it is another way to cut corners, which as Americans, we have gotten fairly good at. Being lazy is one thing, but being lazy in your vocabulary to the extent of butchering the english language is something far different and worse. If you are going to use acronyms for everything, then it would be best if you DSAA (Don't Speak At All)!

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