Texting.
These days, everyone does it, unless they are on an airplane. Even church pews and movie theaters are not exempt from the buzzing and dinging of text message notifications.
Of course I have the usual etiquette complaints such as texting during dinner, texting while in the middle of an actual, vocal conversation, and texting while driving which is dangerous for everyone, especially pedestrians.
I appreciate the use of acronyms for brevity’s sake, so I bought a texting dictionary.
LOL. Being a writer, it’s hard for me to adjust to having whole sentences formed by using acronyms: NTTAWWT “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
And since typing on a smart phone is not conducive to a quick conversation, I guess I can understand the use of them for getting an idea across fast. Unless like me, you have to look all the abbreviations up.
As an experiment, the Tuesday girls decided we’d all get with the program and instead of talking, we’d bring our smart phones to the table and just communicate with each other all night by texting.
The only vocals we were allowed were expressions of emotion.
We wanted to see how long we could stand it. Soon, people seated on the far side of the table were texting the other side of the table, closest to the refrigerator, to get them beers. Eva took ROTFL* literally, and actually got on the floor. And that did it for us, so our texting experiment lasted about fifteen minutes.
But honestly, could you imagine what would happen if doctors got the idea to start texting their patients instead of speaking Chinese? Wait…maybe that’s not so bad, unless it might take you longer than six months to figure out: YH6M2L**.
Bunny, the Human Resources expert in our group, decided this was good, indeed.
She was thinking the whole texting thing could make her job much easier. She began making up her own acronyms, such as: OBTWYF! “Oh, by the way, you’re fired.” BDWWHASPFU! “But don’t worry, we have a severance package for you!”
And if you don’t mind paying thirty cents for the text, breaking-up over the phone just got easier. Hey! It’s cheaper than a greeting card!
I couldn’t help but notice in this little texting dictionary there are no acronyms for “clean your room” or “be home by midnight.” So you see, there is still just nothing like good old-fashioned, F2F conversation… .
S Y N T!
*Rolled on the floor laughing
**You have six months to live
Read more posts by Claire Butler here. Claire blogs for JenningsWire.
