Chat Slang

IDK sup re IM.... Omg! ATM 411 FUBAR. MIRL!!! Did you get that? If not, you are not up to date on some of the common chat slang these days. Here's a translation of what I wrote in those first sentences. "I don't know what's up regarding Instant messaging. Oh my gosh! At the moment information is fouled up beyond all recognition. Meet me in real life not online."

Don't feel badly about not understanding that mess. I didn't either until stumbling on Chatslang.com and creating my little cryptic message above. I think our problem is that we are not teenagers, and thus, don't have much experience in the use of online chat slang abbreviations or emotioncoms. Just call me O.o *-* and :-/ (that's, confused, frustrated and perplexed in case you also don't know your cutsie slang icons)

It seems there is an ever increasingly broader chat alternative language on line today called chat slang. But those using it are a homogeneous group, mostly composed of pre teens and teenagers.

Fine...let them have their on line chat slang. But I have seem some of this chat slang creeping into mainstream language, both verbal and written. And I don't like it. No doubt Shakespeare would be aghast (I wander what the chat icon for aghast is?) But then language must evolve and change over time or it dies (like Latin did and like French seems to want to, given its insular and rigid nature). Maybe Shakespeare would lol if that slang was around in his day.

As a fan of clearer, more precise, grammatically and syntactically clear and standard language usage, I ask a few questions for you about the rise of chat slang (please answer in standard English). Is chat slang a higher or lower form of language? How much of it is a good or bad thing? Do those who chat slang excessively lower their standard language usage level. =D (that's a chat icon for "laugh out loud", which itself was a chat slang that has crept into mainstream written and speech today).

It is probably a temporary and harmless language aberration. But it does seem to me to be another element of the dumbing down and laziness of humans brought about by the ease of modern technology. Sometimes such silly slang is brought about by a subculture (teenagers and pre teens, in this instance) as a way of insulting itself from the main culture. But chat slang is used by adults too. Staying of chat lines is one way to avoid much of that mess. I wonder if you have ever used any chat slang yourself? IHA! bi bi