I Am Getting Old - Part One

I know that I am getting old because things that never affected me have begun to. I never considered myself a prude nor a snob but I must be now. I cringe at the use of foul words on websites when I read them. I do not understand how people can use such foul language on the Internet and in everyday life. That is not true. I think it is because of the anonymity of the Internet brings to our life. People use that anonymity to hide their identity so no one knows who they are. Because of that, they take permission to write and say things they may not ordinarily use in their “normal” life. Then I may be wrong. Perhaps they are like that in reality. Alternatively, maybe they feel anonymous as a person and the foul language is a way to attract the attention they desire. Whatever the case may be, I find it offensive.

Another thing that makes me feel old is Internet slang. In a series of emails I exchanged with a friend, the letters lol kept appearing throughout them. I could not imagine what they stood for. Lots of luck and lots of love were a few of the phrases that came to mind. I finally asked what they meant and to my surprise, my friend said they meant, laugh out loud. Not only did I have a problem understanding, the spelling and grammar checker in Word has a problem with both lol and laugh out loud, the verb usage is incorrect. In addition, it wants to capitalize the first L in lol. Maybe Microsoft should update their spelling and grammar checker to include Internet slang with the definitions so people like me understand them. I have since “researched” slang and still do not understand it. lol A couple of other things that irk me about the spell checker is “Passive Voice” and use of contractions. I must rewrite sentences a million times before they go away. What’s wrong with using a “Passive Voice” or a contraction in a sentence?

Here is what this sentence, For crying out loud can’t people speak real words anyways. laugh out loud, would look like in internet slang. 4col cnt peeps spk r wo12ds anywaz. lol Looks to me like people spend more time trying to come up with these acronyms than it takes to write the real word they mean and some are actually longer than the word or words they replace. W.E.

DID YOU KNOW THAT IF YOU TYPE AN EMAIL MESSAGE, A POST OR ANY OTHER TYPE OF DOCUMENT IN ALL CAPS, YOU ARE CONSIDERED TO BE SHOUTING AT THE PERSON IT IS ADDRESSED TO?

Oh well there is one thing for sure, I will continue to get older and the world will continue to change. The other thing is that I am not sure I am ready for either. lol