text speak.

If I have one pet peeve at the moment that is above many others on the annoyance scale it would be one thing: text speak. You know, the norm now seemingly in communication where it is suddenly okay to bypass any and all punctuation and make it easier by ONE LETTER to write a word such as '2morrow' or a few so you can write 'c u 2morrow.' Like really fuckhead? You want me to meet up with you tomorrow when you can't properly compose a sentence nor use punctuation?

GAAAHHHHH.

I can't even describe what antipathy I have towards people who compose their texts and nowadays even EMAILS with all text words - foregoing any and ALL punctuation. Fuck you if you do that. Because really? How much time is it really saving you? Is it infinitely more than how much of a fucking illiterate loser you come off looking like?

Okay. I know. I need to officially simmer down.

I think the reason why I have such a visceral reaction to text speak is that I find it is becoming more and more frequent - it is being used beyond text to conversations where you might be iming with someone or emailing with them. And ultimately I'm afraid that it is dumbing down the youth of America and most likely the countries around the world that speak English. I can't properly speak about other languages where people text, but I'm sure the same thing is happening.

As soon as it becomes okay to forgo something as important as punctuation or even spelling or proper sentence composition I worry about the intelligence and communication capabilities of any culture. It seriously, seriously, seriously worries me. Especially the youth in this country, who might actually think that you spell come as 'cum' or see as 'c.' Sigh.

It reminds me of the story of one of my friends in college who was mentoring the city kids in an after school program and one kid was all, "How do you spell fabulous?" And granted, English isn't her first language but she had to think for a second and one of the kids shouted out "F -A - B - A - L - O- U - S!" He was so proud as well. (I'm blanking on what refrain that song is from now - but it was really popular in 2001/2002). Sad/funny end to the story: my friend couldn't figure out the typo to that spelling. Sigh.

Granted that story has more to do with a song influencing the grammar skills of the youth than anything else - but it was part of popular culture just as text speak is becoming the norm. I received an email from a co-worker (where English is definitely not their first language) and they said: "I'll send it to you 2morrow." My first reaction was cackling with laughter because where in the world did he pick this up - especially since he doesn't even live in an English language world, and why would he think it is okay to write the word like that?

So recently I've started emailing/iming with a co-worker. Who ever since I started my job I've had a bit of a crush on. He is cute - but it's also the fact that there isn't a dearth of cute, straight, younger men in my workplace (per usual) - making him infinitely cuter to me. The thing is is that he essentially uses in both chat speak AND emails the term "LOL" in lieu of punctuation. Seriously. I can't even tell you how many times he will use "LOL" in a 10 word email...Probably something around at least four times. I was with a friend on Thursday night when I realized how horrible it was. She said that she was in the middle of reading some book that said we shouldn't disregard boys who use words such as "Brava" or even "LOL" just because they use them. Though afer reading a few of his emails you could tell she wasn't sure how much even she at that point believed it.

Today I was chatting with him and he asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him for restaurant week and I couldn't figure out if he meant it in a romantic way. Though I couldn't tell if I wanted him to anymore because really? Like fucking REALLY!!! You're not a 14 year old boy buddy. You're 28 and professionally employed. Not only does he love to use LOL like it's going out of style, BUT he also used lmao. Which? I had to have other people tell me what it was. Also, and this is part of my pet peeve, he doesn't actually use any punctuation, nor any does he capitalize. I've gotten a little better about the capitalization thing as long as you use proper punctuation. If you can't form complete sentences though with punctuation, please don't talk to me.

So I was essentially asking everyone today if asking me out to dinner was a datey kind of thing, or a buddies thing. (Sidebar: I since talked to someone I work with who is also friends with him, and she was like, "Definitely no. He has a girlfriend" So kind of phew. Kind of bummer, since for awhile I did have a pretty decent crush on him.) Anyway, I emailed one of my friends who is also a journo (I know, right?!) and I loved her response:

"I've learned in my ripe old age [she's not old at all] that we must be a tiny bit forgiving with emails. Boys are, above all, retards."

That pretty much says it succinctly - though that doesn't mean it isn't a pet peeve. Just perhaps something I have to learn to be more forgiving with.