Abbrevs.

Twenty, thirty, probably even ten years ago, people were using abbreviations on a limited basis and when it made sense. Doctor was shortened to “Dr.”. Incorporated became known as “Inc.”. We even use abbreviations when writing peoples names: Mr., Mrs., Jr., ect. But these convenient shortenings have been taken to an extreme and have begun to seep into everyday conversation and become a part of our culture.

The two prime examples that I can think of are LOL and the more extreme, “legit” (Laugh Out Loud and legitimate for those of you who are unaware). I find that LOL is used quite frequently in everyday conversation. In my opinion, LOL has replaced the awkward laugh: the one you use when you force yourself to laugh at a joke that just isn’t funny. “Legit” is frustrating for me. It has become so ingrained into our culture, that I find using its elongated form, legitimate, weird. Whenever I use it, it just doesn’t sound right.

But where do these abbreviations originate?

I hold texting and instant messaging (IM) responsible. The both encourage rapid communication and abbreviations only facilitate that. Because we know that texting and instant messaging can be fast, we expect them to be fast, and we become impatient when there isn’t an immediate response. In order to appease our impatience, we developed abbreviations for words and phrases to expedite the process. Here are some of the more commonly used abbreviations.

brb – be right back
2 – to, too, two
ttyl – talk to you later
gtg – got to go
k – okay
omg – oh my god
lol – laugh out loud
rotfl – rolling of the floor laughing
l8r – later
cuz – because
Test your abbreviation literacy by taking a sporcle quiz.

There are plenty of others that are used too. With IM all that these abbreviations did was speedup the process, but that was the point. With texting there was another reason. There is a character limit per page, and phone companies charge per page. Therefore, abbreviations also encouraged saving money. It is really incredible how language adapts to cultural changes. In a sense, this phenomenon reminds me of the book Frindle by Andrew Clements where the main character renames his pen a frindle and eventually enough people start saying it, and frindle becomes a word in the dictionary. The English language has undergone changes to be compatible with the growing use of electronic devices.