Sumtimes U just HV 2 LYWO

It seems like “texting” has been around forever. I’ve even turned into a “texter.” Actually, texting as we know it today became available in 2001 and didn’t become user friendly until about 2003.

The young folks are especially gifted at it. Whether us old fogeys like it or not, it’s here to stay and it’s the way they communicate. Talking on the phone is so “ninety’s!”

The young people probably laugh at me because I text with proper grammar and include all punctuation. It’s the way I grew up. Of course, it’s a wonder I can spell at all because when I was in school, they taught the 3 R’s – Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Did it ever bother any of y’all that only one of these words started with the letter R? I used to ponder on that.

I guess the younger generation thought, “we can misspell with the best of ‘em” so they invented texting shortcuts. And even they will have to admit, it’s a bit confusing…and I don’t think any faster, at least for the reader. It’s sort of like the time I put 911 in speed dial. Then all I had to do is dial *26!

Let me give you an example. I got a text the other day and it read, “H8 2 tell U this L8, but ILBL8 4 the PZA PRT. Y? DNT U PLZ TXT me UR plans and mayB I can come STR8 from WRK and meet U @ an XLNT place 2 eat. H8 2 DV8 from UR original GUD plan. NE place is K with me. TLK2UL8R. CU. THNX.”

I just stared at it as if I had received a message from Mars. It didn’t take me long to realize it was sent to me by mistake. I didn’t recognize the phone number and had no idea what was being said. I studied it for two hours and here is my best interpretation.

Someone was trying to let someone know something about some plan to eat at some place somewhere…at sometime! I thought, I need to let them know they sent this to the wrong person. Not wanting to appear more ignorant…er than I already am, I told myself, ‘You’ve got to reply in text shortcut lingo.” Here was my message.

“Sew sawree but Kneed 2 N farm ewe that eye reCVED eweR text buy MESteak. Did ant WAHNT ewe 2 1DUR Y ewe Neh-vurr herd BCK FRummh eweR FRRend.”

Feeling like a cross between a “rocket scientist” and a cyber-space “good Samaritan,” I decided to educate myself a little bit on this shortcut business. I had encountered a few of them on Facebook and had not a clue what I was reading. Things like LOL (which I first thought meant Lots of Love) I found out meant Laughing Out Loud.

There are a lot of these abbreviations for letting someone know just how tickled you are. BWL stands for Busting With Laughter. CSL means Can’t Stop Laughing. When you’re totally out of control laughing you can use BOSMKL, which means Bending Over Smacking My Knee Laughing! (I’m not making these up.)

When you really want to let someone know they have tickled your funny bone, there is even ROFLCOPTER. I’ve never seen anyone do this. It stands for Rolling On Floor Laughing and Spinning Around! I repeat, I’m not making any of this up.

Well, two can play at this game. I made up one of my own. There are times in life when we try everything we know to ease the tension or make ourselves feel better. My answer is “sometimes you just have to LYWO.” I’m proud to inform you it means Laugh Your Way Out! Write it down and remember you heard it here first!

And on a totally serious note, PDTWD…Please Don’t Text When Driving!

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Tagged as: Stress, Technology