People make up lots of slang & acronyms for chat/text purposes. I was online in the early '90s before there even WAS an internet, and being able to type things out quickly in a chat room was paramount. Hence the generation of LOL, AFK (away from keyboard), BRB (be right back), LMAO, ROTFL, TTYL (talk to you later), etc. The more people got into chatting - and even more so texting, especially with flip phones that don't have great keyboards - the more popular and prevalent the acronyms got. It's been interesting to watch the growth.
I was raised not to curse. I wasn't allowed to say "bad words," and those included damn, hell, dumb, and stupid. I think not cursing as a kid, in conjunction with reading voraciously, did help me build a better vocabulary. Now I've still got the vocabulary but can curse with the best of 'em. I actually remember the first time I did. It was 7th grade, I was waiting for the bus, and I realized my algebra book was missing. It had been stolen. My curse was solely exclamatory: "S---!"
As for whether words have power and whether curses have their place... well, some of you may be familiar with the case
Cohen v. California (1971) (
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/cohen.html), which started when a guy was arrested for wearing a jacket emblazoned with "F--- the draft!" in a courthouse. The United States Supreme Court actually overturned his conviction, stating that while he could have worn something like "I hate the draft," or "I'm against the draft," "much linguistic expression serves a dual communicative function: it conveys not only ideas capable of relatively precise, detached explication, but otherwise inexpressible emotions as well. In fact, words are often chosen as much for their emotive as their cognitive force."
So there you go. If the USSC says so...
Topic: Internet slang... (Read 4610 times)
