Twit-speak

I don't tweet, or us Twitter.  I don't understand the need or the concept itself.  Why must anyone know what I'm thinking at a given moment?  Is my commentary, instantaneously sent through the ether the minute I witness something, that much more important than anyone else's?  I suppose that in an emergency situation Twitter has some use, but why not a cellphone or a CB radio?  I guess I'm just old.

One thing that Twitter has given rise to is what I refer to as Twit-speak.  From what I glean from discussions about Twitter, individual posts on Twitter are limited to one hundred and forty characters.  As a result this is to blame for people abbreviating words like are with R and you with U.  For becomes 4.  Then there are the unintelligible acronyms that one learns along the way, like TTYL, which stands for Talk To You Later.  It's enough to make one's head spin.

In certain realms, abbreviations are necessary due to the need for quick communication.  In the military, a QRF is a Quick Reaction Force, and asking for that in three letters is much faster.  We all know the IRS as the Internal Revenue Service; it's much easier to spit out the initials than say the dreck that is that institution's full name.  Some area's of the country group things together, such as Chicagoland, which refers to the Greater Metropolitan Area of Chicago and Gary, Indiana, although, to be sure, this disgusts some people.

Since I don't engage in Twitter, I don't much care how people talk there.  I find it odd and leave it at that. But when it crosses over into mainstream communication, I balk.  It's bad enough that most people can't speak English correctly, or even moderately correctly.  But to use all these Twit-speak affectations is annoying.

For example, I was listening to sports talk radio in the car and heard about a presser.  At first, I thought someone had borrowed this term from the Brits (and they may have, although I can't find out for sure online). What happened to press conferences?  Is that too much for people to say?  Is it unclear what's going on? When I heard about a presser, I thought they were speaking about someone who worked in a dry cleaner's who'd somehow done something at a sporting event.

Then there are the young folk.  This is where I start to feel old.  Someone was talking about something being cray cray.  I'm not sure what the correct spelling is, but that's how it was pronounced.  And what does that mean?  Crazy.  Yes, crazy.  One extra syllable was too much for someone, so they said the first syllable of the word...twice.

There's a commerical with Don Cheadle for some television device, and he refers to an oppo.  At least I think he does.  Having heard the commercial a couple of times now, I think what he's saying in Twit-speak is opportunity.  I don't care enough to look it up, but from the context, that's what I understand.  It's ridiculous.

I'm not against language evolving, because that's what languages do.  But when language is bastardized because people are too lazy or illiterate to communicate effectively, it's tiresome.  I'll never be hip -- I doubt I ever was -- and I'm not opposed to people being so in their dress and language. But this notion that everyone is going to understand abbreviations that are used on Twitter is unsound. I  don't know what the numbers are on Twitter usage, but I doubt that every person on the globe is using it.

I'll never tweet.  I'm not that interesting.  Besides, I doubt I've ever had a post here that was one hundred forty characters or less.  So I leave Twitter to those more interesting, more aware, more hip and more technologically advanced than I am.

Besides, I remember when this # was merely the pound symbol.

(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles