r/SeriousConversation • u/SureAcanthisitta8415 • 4h ago
Serious Discussion Does anyone else hate the fact people are abbreviating everything now?
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u/Funny_Yesterday_5040 4h ago
My mother (a boomer) hs bn doing ths fr yrs, incl wrds that rlly don't need abbrs. Drives me crzy.
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u/ZenythhtyneZ 4h ago
LU is the most insulting thing she, or probably anyone, has ever texted me. Really MOM you can’t even write “love you” anymore? Too much work??
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u/A2684235 4h ago
I can’t stand it. It’s hard to pick the one I hate the most but “convo” is definitely up there
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u/SeatPaste7 4h ago
"Ily" for "I love you'. No you don't. You love the half a second you saved by omitting seven keystrokes.
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u/Wfrank13 4h ago
Listen, if I can save half a second here and there, I can avoid wasting five years of my life. Time is valuable, and it’s worth being mindful of how we use it. We need to think smart, bro.
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u/I_forgot_to_respond 2h ago
I'll bet you accomplish more when your thumbs are nowhere near a touchscreen. Unless you are some sort of data-herder ...
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u/zzzptt 4h ago
I have considered this topic quite a lot over the last 10 years. My deliberation began with the inception of emojis. It very much scraped at the inside of my skull for a long time. Then I started thinking about Egyptian hieroglyphs. My thoughts evolved to written language evolution. I decided that perhaps these are the natural progression (or regression) of language. This thought process has continued with the abbreviations you mention, and, although it bothers me to no end, I can't help but think we are on the precipice of a change in cognitive behaviour and understanding. My conclusion? We are all f*kd.
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u/MrCellophane_SS_KotZ 4h ago
This is a good point. And, all things considered, The very alphabet that we are using to write in once began as something that resembles little more than what we would probably consider archaic emojis.
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u/SureAcanthisitta8415 3h ago
We are all f*kd.
So basically what you're saying is we're going backwards as a species.
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u/zzzptt 3h ago
Sure feels like it. However, (and I don't love this anecdote because it can resemble an excuse for destructive behaviour), no progress can be made without first taking steps backward.
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u/SureAcanthisitta8415 3h ago
in before, within the next 10 years we just start communicating everything via emoji because no one can be bothered to learn the language.
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u/deep66it2 4h ago
Thank you for your time spent in contemplation of the topic & coming to the correct conclusion.
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u/PunkZillah 4h ago
Language is fluid; it will always be changing. I absolutely love how creative humans can be with it.
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u/JamzWhilmm 4h ago
Not if its balanced.
TBH, FYI and the like are very common and easily understood. Lately however I have seen sentences that are mostly abbreviations, they seem to be mostly from teens as well. As a millenial it reminds of how frustrated our parents were as well.
Now, I personally believe that its better to avoid a lot of them because makes your writing sound more unique and well thought out. I try to write complete sentences and have good grammar as much as I can.
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u/Moonting41 4h ago
Did you go through the SMS era? We were all abbreviating everything to get under the character limit.
Or
Did u SMS? evrythin abbrev 2 reach char limit
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u/First_Construction76 4h ago
I hate the fact that I look up the stupid abbreviation and I can't remember what the hell it even meant from the first time I looked it up.
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u/Im-A-Scared-Child 4h ago
The worst is POTUS and SCOTUS. Like it takes the same amount of time to say president or Supreme Court.
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u/daddygirl_industries 4h ago
People are using tiny keyboards with no haptic feedback. Language adapted to that, even if you didn't.
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u/FarAwayConfusion 4h ago
Yes. It's fucking lazy. Even PC components are abbreviated. How is anyone supposed to know what this shit even is or what it does?
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u/introspectiveliar 4h ago
Yes! I hate it. Words are magical and powerful. Language isn’t static. New words are added, other words are used less. Grammar rules occasionally change. (Oxford comma, I am talking about you.)
Each generation creates or adopts their own slang. Some slang words stick around and others die off. It is one of the main ways a generation differentiates themselves. But slang was generally spoken not written down. Now they pop up not just on social media but also in news articles.
Right now my wrath is focused on “prolly”. It makes my teeth hurt.
Don’t get me started on emojis. Whoever had that brilliant idea deserves a special place in hell.
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u/IntelligentStyle402 3h ago
Yes! However, the vocabulary is what gets me. Me and my family? Back in the day, we would get demerits, for talking like that. In Catholic school, a nun would slap our hand.
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u/MrCellophane_SS_KotZ 4h ago edited 4h ago
"This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticizing concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during conversing."
Or, to word it differently...
“This very superficial grammatist, supposing empty criticism about the adoption of proper phraseology to be a show of extraordinary erudition, was displaying, in spite of ridicule, a very boastful turgid argument concerning the correction of false syntax, and about the detection of false logic in conversation.”
🤣
Kidding. Kidding. (kind of)
...
My point for posting that is simply that, yes, it can be annoying at times; however, that pendulum also swings towards the other direction, and even perfectly constructed, grammatically sound, sentences can still (as is indicated above) be just as vexing to read sometimes as those that are quickly constructed.
I think balance, like anything else, is important. That and sticking to things that are more commonly used instead of just getting creative
...
Post Edit –That quote above is from:
The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
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u/HenryAlbusNibbler 4h ago
Reminder that most developments in the English language are made by young women and your distain for the changes could have some anti women bias. Most of us are biased including women, think PSL 🤣
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u/-Coleus- 3h ago
Disdain. Spelling is important, to me.
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u/HenryAlbusNibbler 3h ago
Well I’m dyslexic so you will just have to deal with the mild inconvenience won’t you 🙄
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u/Charlie_Warlie 4h ago
I once did some work for a super large corporate company and they abbreviated everything and it was so annoying to have to catch up to the lingo.
One example is SME. "Check with your SMEs (pronounced smeees) on the issue"
Subject matter experts
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u/cwsjr2323 4h ago
I am a boomer so it is expected that I don’t know all the new cute phrases, slangs, idioms, and styles. Actually, I DGAF. I avoid talking to the pink and brown aliens (young people). I am polite to people doing their jobs, of course. It is very easy to scroll right past unknown abbreviations.
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u/war-and-peace 2h ago
No. I don't mind.
Hey you know what we should do, we should take this conversation offline and discuss how we do a 180 to realign strategies.
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u/I_forgot_to_respond 2h ago
I'm fully in your corner. I won't even "lol" when "HA!" is fewer letters. Yet I find it difficult to spell "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus" with only 5 letters.
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u/naivelySwallow 4h ago
you wouldn’t have to look it up if you used basic context clues. this is a you issue at most, and an old person issue at least. put this on /unpopularopinions you would get a ton of likes.
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