Asap... gtg... idk... wth... brb... Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Short forms! It’s all the rage amongst us teens these days. We use short forms while chatting on MSN, Facebooking, sending SMSes, and to a certain extent, some of us have even taken to using short forms in our school essays, much to the dismay of our teachers.
Believe it or not, short forms have been created to serve a purpose. Though its origins cannot be pinpointed, but it is a creative and innovative creation in all its rights nonetheless.
Something long like “missing in action” can be shortened to “MIA”. Just imagine – doing this repetitively over the long run can save a whole lot of time.
Though this ‘short form’ phenomenon initially originated from mostly teens, but elderly folks have caught on it too. Not only that, but advertising companies have resorted to using short forms in their advertising campaigns in a bid to be more appealing to teens and youths.
Interestingly, teens have resorted to using short forms for constructive purposes, such as taking down notes of their lessons or creating mind maps in a manner that is highly efficient.
However, just like any other creation, short forms have their fair share of downsides. Official documents, emails and letters have been mocked with the usage of short forms. Worse still, teens have started to use it nonchalantly in their exams.
To me, so long we can draw a line as to when we should and shouldn’t use short forms, then it’s obviously okay to use them.
*A revised version of this article has been published in Niexter dated 1 April 2010.
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