Quick to say our goodbyes... quick to say it all?

Just a response to the bit of discussion that we had in tutorial on Monday: instant messaging language taking over our everyday communication. Reminded me directly of a good friend I have back home who is completely guilty of this. We will be parting ways and she will shout out, “T.T.Y.L.!” It’s so customary to occur at the end of our hang-outs that I don’t even call her out on it anymore. But still, stopping to think about it I find it completely ridiculous. In a lot of instances we do seem to be progressively shortening our speech to the commonly used/typed language of IM. Friends going from saying, “I’ll see you later!” to “Later” to the simplistic and short “Late.”

Granted, much of the communication that is done while at uni, to get a hold of friends or keep in touch while they’re away, is conveniently done on the computer through instant messaging (or probably even more-so through texting). It works and is completely understood on the computer or phone, so why not integrate it in everyday person-to-person “convo” as well. Overall, today’s society seems to be aiming at the simplest way around any given obstacle. In application, even if that obstacle may merely be saying good bye to a friend. So we might just keep applying the language of IM and even texting to our everyday talk. Who knows where it will be cut-off? If at any point? You would think that there is only so far you can shorten our words and still make sense of them, or still sound anything of intellectual. We shall see if our discussions start and continue to resemble the grunts of prior cavemen or something of the like…