A tale inspired by (though not relating to) the picture prompt at today's Mindlovemisery's Menagerie
I texted back ‘WHAT?’
He replied ‘FANCY A DRINK TOMORROW’.
Now, I understood that. He wanted a drink tomorrow, Tuesday. I wasn’t free so I texted back HA WTF? trying to be clever, meaning ‘how about Wednesday Thursday or Friday?’
His reply was nonsensical. It just said UCMU. Goodness knows what that means I thought.
Then I had an idea. I googled ‘text speak’ and found a sort of online texter's dictionary and suddenly I could read it. Apparently, he'd said ‘you crack me up’.
I didn’t understand what I’d said that had amused him, so I looked up WTF in my new dictionary and - well - I won't spell out what I'd inadvertently written!
I wrote out my free days in proper English, followed by IHA which I now understand to mean ‘I hate acronyms’. What a strange thing to abbreviate! Anyway, we arranged to GAB (get a beer) Thursday.
A couple of friends joined us in the pub. Whilst sitting around the table, I got a bit vocal about my dislike of texting, only to notice that our two companions were actually texting each other whilst joining in our conversation. ‘Multi-tasking’ one explained. Then he stood up, said ‘G4AP’ to me and wandered off to the toilet!
Sms by bfaupin at deviantART
Ah, the acronyms get harder every day!I can hardly understand what my 15y old brother is telling me, but I think I do a good job at guessing and pretending!
ReplyDeleteI like your entry, it is funny but also makes one think, where exactly are we going with all of this text speak, and what impact does it have on language and communication.
Thank you very much for participating, I hope you had fun!
I'm with you 100% Selena. thx.
DeleteIts a whole new world isn't the texting world..one day it will be a subject taught to kids in school I think...
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's the modern equivalent of good old Pitman's shorthand!Cheers Michael.
DeleteA scenario all too common today. And people wonder why young people don't know how to spell!
ReplyDeleteSo true Josie
DeleteI enjoyed that so much - wry humour that made chuckle - my texts are all in 'longhand' as I can't understand 'text speak' at all, not that I know anyone who uses it!
ReplyDeleteMe too Kim. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, what is the world coming to?
DeleteReading a contemporary romance, I found text messages included in the storytelling. Ugh! So I decided to base my shorty story series in the mid 1990's because I rarely text and don't understand many of the shortcuts. Happy writing!
ReplyDelete