Comments on: How the Web is killing my ability to communicate

Don Reisinger is having trouble communicating, thanks to Web slang. He examines how it happened and how it is affecting his life.

[aj37viggen]

Try volunteering one day a week at a homeless shelter and then see if you ever care again how people pronounce "L-MAO"...

[AlanHub]

"i'm do much better than you. i just wanted to mention that i sacrifice my free time for others, unlike you, Don, you pompous, conceited jerk who can't see the troubled world. I don't even want to hear excuses about how you write posts for your salary or any BS..'

[TheStairMaster]

@ alan, what's with the hostility, man?

[AlanHub]

oh it was sarcastic, to a degree, and directed at AJ, because i felt like i wanted to show the true reason about why he posted sucha comment

[jedmmj11]

(unrelated to above comment)
the only abbreviation i use i speech is incredibly useful. htbt (Had To Be There)

[PreTenD7979]

Oh... Good for you, you can not care how "L-MAO" is pronounced to yourself, please don't comment ever again.

[Chapmaniac]

Yep, they need to catch up with us.

[savvydude]

Okay, so after you use "BRB", and you get back, what do you say? Cancel BRB, or CBRB? Maybe 'I'm back from the BRB, or IBFBRB? I'm confused.

[Robert-The-Soviet]

you say "back" or "i'm back"

[Scott Gardener]

"/BRB" if I understand common web coding methods. "Berb (I'm leaving)... OK, slash-berb. (I'm back.)"

It will be amusingly disturbing, some 200 years from now, when "Rofl" is considered formal grammar, dating back to the days when there were people who didn't have Internet access at all, let alone cybernetic direct access and webcams for eyes.

[superswiss]

Really? Kinda explains the thinking process behind some of your articles. Go take some communication classes. First directive for proper communication: Know your audience, then tailor your communication style to that audience.

[kaibelf]

I personally found this article very fun to read, and very true to life in some circles. What I fail to understand, however, is how the usage of web abbreviations in general conversation in any way relates to or influences "the thinking process behind some of his articles." Were you just trying to shoehorn in an insult, superswiss? If so, that was a rather hamfisted attempt. U phail. Kthxbai.

[stoobush]

You're aware that BRB and Be Right Back have the same number of syllables and thus take exactly the same amount of time and effort to say. Unless, of course, you're saying "burb" instead of the letters. Can't imagine anyone would understand "burb", though.

[cbaisa]

all of my friends use "burb"

[awild1]

Im not one to typically use these abbreviations out loud, however we do have to remember that pretty much all of these slang terms where created by IM's and texting. So they where used to shorten phrases and make typing them faster. Funny observation though.

[jskrenes]

I swear if you ever say "BRB" or "burb" to me, I'm going to stop you and make you say it fully and at least twice so as to waste the precious half second you tried to save by slaughtering the English language.

[consenseus]

Some ppl say "maybe" and some people say "perhaps" and they both have the same number of syllables too. How strange.

[ssreject]

FTW used to mean something far more sinister in my youth. As in "Bleep" The World. But I come from an entirely different subculture where people draw X's on their hands to signify the fact they don't drink.

[TSessions]

Yes, I was always confused by the usage of FTW. It's always meant **** The World to me too. When I was in the Navy we would say FTN. (**** The Navy) You young whippersnappers have no idea.

(OMG - LOL)

Bah!

[klingongrl]

ROFLMAO!!! FTW has always meant **** the world. Any other usage is obscure and limited to a small group of people.

[sdf0013]

Man I feel old. Way back in the days of chat BBS (yeah, I'll wait while you research that one - BBS means Bulletin Board System, a very early precursor to the web but focused on chat rather than forums or downloads) we came up with these shortened phrase. They aren't as new as everyone thinks. Some are, but most are actually rehash.

Oh the good old days of multiple phone lines running into an Apple IIc running custom software so people could type to each other rather. No game, no MMO, no graphics, no ads. Just text and a few other people chatting it up.

TTFN

[jdukvoac]

I actually used to take a long phone line, go down to the main phone box for the building, and with a set of aligator clips attached at one end and the other plugged into my computer, connect to random phone lines and start dialing long distance.....ha ha, the good old days of BBS'ing and downloading 256 color porn!

[ironmike7707]

Vapid, tedious blog.

And by the way, I still don't know what the heck pwned is. Is that pronounced "pawned" or "p-w-n'ed" or "p-w-n-e-d".

But don't bother to clarify. I won't be checking back for a response. My primary point is that this was a goofy waste of my time.

[gilbertfh]

As is your post... For those that actually want to know pwned is pronounced poned long O

[professionaladventurer]

Yeah, I have the same problem. Most people have no idea what I am talking about. Wait, that's not the Internets fault....

[Khurt]

Dude! FTW!

[CactuarWins]

What about a shameless combination of three of those? I write a column, (essentially a blog), based on the FTW mantra, and <a href="http://news.gotgame.com/the-battle-of-the-internet-slang-that-isnt-completely-overused-or-pointless/25911/">one entry</a> pitted "BRB" against "IMHO."

Maybe not entirely shameless.

[CactuarWins]

Hmm, no HTML in comments. Lesson learned.

Sorry for the mess.

[tipoo_]

Wow...the only one of those i use on a common basis in real life is "Pwned", but then everybody does.

[pawl521]

no, not everyone. only you.....dork

[Shaun822]

Aside from speaking, more or less, fluent and correct English, some of the examples you have given make no sense. These abbreviations were adopted so that commonly used phrases could be written multiple times. Saying "eff - tee - double - ewe" ir more syllables than "for the win," ergo no point whatsoever. Saying "bee - are - bee" is the same as saying "be right back," again no net gain in speed or ease. Saying "el - emm - ay - oh" just makes no sense. If you found something that funny, just laugh, I assure you people will understand what you are doing. "Pwned" is a videogame typo that became popular a long time ago and has unfortuneately made a comeback but again in regular conversation makes no sense to anyone that doesn't play games semi-frequently, and again "owned" would get the point across just as easily.

Can't wait a few more years when the teens of today that use these in everyday speech can't figure out why they can't get a professional job tomorrow.

[templetonrl]

FTW= F*uck the world!

Never heard of for the win!

[perontopsp]

Well, thats becuase you are retarded. Sorry you had to find out this way. Mental Retardation FTW!!!

[InkyRed]

ahahahahahah

[kaibelf]

Oh snap. Perontopsop pwned templetonrl ftw!

[gilbertfh]

U got PWNED

[techfan_08]

rofl?

[mrobmsu]

Dum.

[perontopsp]

Way to contribute to the commenting society!

[TuckersRock]

I don't like you.

[elcuban0o]

I find it quite funny how some people here completely miss the point that none of the aforementioned abbreviations are to be said outside of an IM client or a social networking site. Of course saying any of those out loud would be completely against the point, and probably only to garner a few laughs. Thanks for wasting enough time to break down the obvious to the point of completely taking out any humor Don had originally intended for the piece.

savvydude is awesome for his 'brb' comment, by the way.

[Atlantean]

There was humor there?

[TheStairMaster]

hmm...

would you pronounce "pwned" as "Poned" or as "Owned"?

because pwn itself is just a corruption of own, and the two are used interchangeably...

[perontopsp]

You pronounce it as "Poned", it orignated from a typo of somebody tring to type owned, but then that person hit the the p key.

Typos FTW!!!

[PandaSage1221]

I definitely use internet lingo in real life, but just around people I know will get it (or at least won't think I'm weird for using it - i.e., those that know me well.)

I use BRB, and I say each letter for that one. I don't say FTW, but I do say for the win. Pwned also common. And twitter/tweet/etc, of course!

I even have a friend I often speak to in lolspeak. ("I can has remote?" for example)

[MrRetardo]

I get a kick out of the people with the "I dont use these stupid abbreviations" attitude. Do you say "e-mail" or "electronic Mail"? Do you say "Modem" or "Modulator/Demodulator"? Do you say "CPU" or "Central Processing Unit"?? Do you get "gas" for your car or do you get "gasoline" for your car? Do you say "cellular phone" or "Cell" or "Cell Phone"?

[numbingpain]

pwned

[mynameiscoffey]

The difference I think between your examples and the ones in the article is that they are two things: Nouns and actually shorter than their original and full name. Until these phrases started being used in modern speech we did not have the ability to recite the alphabet and call it a complete thought. I think the commercials where the little girl is talking to her mother completely in abbreviated phrases goes to show just how stupid the whole idea really is. Also on that note, since the acronyms are for any part of speech and can be of a varying length reading OMG G2G BRB is alot easier than listening to "oh-em-gee-gee-two-gee-bee-arr-bee" since it doesn't have the broken up structure that typed language lends itself to. (and to top it off is EXACTLY the same number of syllables as saying "oh-my-god-got-to-go-be-right-back" and therefore isn't even any easier or shorter to say like your examples above)

[MrRetardo]

So you still say "Central Processing Unit"?? ***??
Same rules still apply. Slowly the language is evolving into everyday use. Some will live, some wont. Just as dictionaries accepted certain slang words as legitimate words, so too will you see some of these incorporated into everyday language. PWNED! :)