Tuesday, December 24, 2002

grammurz’ dead
Okay… Why the fascination with purposefully mangled grammar and spelling in so much of the on-line world today? While perusing other people’s ‘blogs for design examples, I noticed this entry:

“It’s like wut now…1:18am…still dun wanna take a snooze… tryin 2 get ma mind off thingz…APPLE PIE!! we shoodn’t have left our convo tlkin bout those pplz…. now me got nuffin 2 do….n all me thinkin bout’s da convo we finished… ..so sad.. LOLZ…neways..so bored… nother sweet slow song….hm.. makin me wanna slow dance now.. LOLZ”

I realize that the style originated on instant-messenger type chat systems, and saves time when your thoughts move faster than your fingers can type; but I find it an annoying affectation at best and a hideous mangling of the English language at worst. It’s used in message forums where there isn’t any real need to post the message quickly; you’re not trying to get your text out before the other guy, so why not slow down and SPELL THE WORDS CORRECTLY! I read messages like the one above and immediately peg the author as a semi-literate moron, whether they are or not in real life.

Yeah, yeah, there have been many points in time where people have decried the death of the language under some onslaught of slang; and yes, I do take written shortcuts myself in my writing. Sometimes the style itself can evoke the feeling you seek in the reader. But if you want to be taken seriously- along with your message- I don’t think this writing style will help.

n-e-way… off to da cuz’s, l8r.