I hear people speaking in text person to person. The girl said to me "OMG". Now that makes sense for text I guess. But speaking it? It' the same # of syllables!
Hey Wainiha,
Your comment is a very interesting observation.
My current job centers around communications – textual and verbal. I spend many hours a day very quickly analyzing communications, and then take action based upon my interpretation of the text.
Human communications are the most researched and studied aspects of our human history.
One such branch of study is sociolinguistics – the study of language in relation to social factors, including differences of regional, class, occupational dialect, gender differences, and bilingualism.
The internet and social media now includes: virtual forms of expression, like chat rooms, cellular phone texting, email, etc.
Since any text can be interpreted in multiple ways (called polysemy) the possibility of multiple meanings within a text can obviously be problematic – or commonly misinterpreted.
For example, OMG – acronym for “oh my God”, commonly used in texting, and means - surprise, alarm, or disgust. Since humor, tone, and intent are typically difficult to express in text (thus the use of Emojis
), especially in short bursts of abbreviated messages, it’s no wonder there is too often confusion among those who use non-verbal communications.
We see it right here in this forum, right?
To exit from my communications activity at the end of my work day, years ago I created my own acronyms - “GFTD OMC” (Gone For The Day – On My Cell) – and I often say that when leaving the building for the day.
Gnarls.
