Today, I used this article in my presentation to address one of the diseases plaguing our society. I've been meaning to write about this for sometime now so here it is.
Before I continue I must make a point though... just like I did earlier in my presentation. I am profiling based on my observations... probably just like how the Deputy Prime Minister made his own profiling. Generally, the use of abbreviations are more evident in Bahasa Malaysia than in English and acronyms are more evident in English. So, I think you can get the drift on what I mean without me elaborating more and be accused of being a bigot.
The first time that I came across an abbreviated SMS in BM was back in 2006. I had absolutely no fucking idea what it said no matter how many times I read it and eventually passed it to my subordinate to find out what it meant. I was uninitiated at that point so I had no freaking idea what all the abbreviations were unlike now... I can read it in a breeze. That particular message was something like this... "Alng... sy x dpt dtg kja hri ni sbb sy x chat. Sori". Go figure! Leave me a comment below if you can't figure it out.
It never ever occurred to me to abbreviate. In fact, my boss and I did the opposite... back then, an SMS would cost you 15-20sen per SMS as opposed to the 1sen now or first 100 free SMS and whatnot depending on your package. My boss and I would try as hard as possible to maximize the 160 character limit per SMS. Hahaha...what fun we had!
I started to ponder on the 'abrreviating' trend... it was bad... everyone who spoke BM was abbreviating. Okay...so they reckon that it saves time and/or effort to abbreviate... I'm not convinced though... then I get even more confused when they started the trend af alternating the 'caps'...KiNdA LiKe ThIs... iT jUsT dRoVe Me NuTs. I don't get it... I seriously don't! You abbreviate to save time and/or effort but put in the time and effort to alternate caps. Hmmmmm..... makes perfect sense! (sarcasm)
So? Why do I call it a disease? Well... just like the DPM, I feel that it is a threat to the language as this will eventually become such a bad habit that people will eventually be unable to spell the actual word itself. It is also a reflection of personality... it reflects laziness... it reflects impatience... it reflects messed up priorities. Of course, probably no one will agree with me now... but we'll see...
Today's generation wants everything fast... absolutely no patience at all... it will one day effect their sex lives as well and I really pity them when it come to that. Hahaha... imagine... Gone in 60 Seconds in a porn parody!
Just my 2sen post for my 2nd post of the year... Happy Abbreviating!!! WTF!!!
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