After tweeting fairly regularly for three or four months, I have discovered that the bizarre character brevity that it requires has started to creep into my regular activities.
It started with email. As I composed replies (and they always seemed to be replies, not initial messages) I would find myself automatically compacting some words. Sure, the obvious “2” for “to” and “4” for “for” are easily accepted; but “ppl” for “people” and “perf” for “perfect” started to show up as well. My brain seemed to be on Twitter auto-pilot.
I also noticed that I would occasionally let these twords directly into my conversations. I just did it there. It was no big deal if I was live-chatting with my tweppl (crap…again) but it would be embarrassing if I was in the drive-thru line at Taco Bell (4, pep, hot = meal #4, Pepsi, hot sauce). I forget that not everyone’s ears and eyes are attuned to such compact communications.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps the world would be better if everyone focused their thoughts, and communicated succinctly. From a productivity standpoint, we could be 15-20% more productive using twenglsh (dammit…did it again) instead of formal English.
Or perhaps not. Who wants to hear “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” interpreted as “87 yrs ago America was founded on liberty and equality”. But then again, those geeks who live in their basement and spend 24/7 online would get it the first time.
Uh…that’d be me.
“The internet is the spiritual home of the verbose and self-obsessed."
--Mike Southon, columnist for Financial Times