Monday, June 11, 2007

Generation Text


By now, everyone with a TV has seen the ad where the tweenage girl runs up her cell phone bill with frequent text messages to her "BFF, Jill". In the commercial, the girl speaks to her mother in a series of acronyms that are understood only by the under 20 set. The commercial even has subtitles!

Well now, this lingo has infiltrated my home. Here's the exchange I had with Lucas this afternoon:

"Thank you for helping me unload the groceries."
"NP."
"You have to pee?"
"No. No Problem."
"Oh...I get it!"

He's talked this way before. But his abbreviated speech has been limited to the jargon that came about back when the Internet was brand new: LOL...OMG...BTW, etc. But the last incarnation of electronic text-as-speech has me completely perplexed.

I guess I have no problem with the boys talking text. Just as long as they don't mind my taking all the fun out of it by asking what WU means.

4 comments:

Menchie said...

ok, what does WU mean?

Ms. Val said...

LOL, Menchie! According to Lucas, WU means "What's Up?".

MG said...

When these texts are in print, I usually have no idea what they mean, but when spoken, they're put into context and make sense to me.

BTW... the commercial would have been funnier if the little girl had laid into her mother with a few WTFs!!

Ms. Val said...

BTW... the commercial would have been funnier if the little girl had laid into her mother with a few WTFs!!

Funny, yes, but someone would have found a way to be offended by it. Anyway, I get enough of that talk from Luke. When I ask him to take his dishes to the sink (for the third time!) he'll shoot me a loud O...M...F...G!!!!!!!!