BENGALURU: Have you seen that ad where a wife loses her husband in a crowded train station and discovers the love for him instead? Platinum day of love. Well, if such a day does exists, mine was when N corrected my spelling of ‘rejuvenate’. I’m a ‘Grammar Nazi’, and used to maintain a standing rule that I wouldn’t date guys who txt lyk dis. So, when N caught me in my momentary lapse of reason, I fell for him.
Textese or SMS language developed at a time when phones were as big and heavy as TV remotes and one needed powerful fingers to press the keys. Text messages were expensive and there were only 160 characters to express oneself before the phone balance dipped. Now with Wi-Fi messaging, feather-light phones, touch screens and other paraphernalia, you would think textese would have died a natural death, but it has merely evolved. Textese can be a bane or boon of today’s society depending on which team you are in; the Nazis or the busy bees that don’t have the extra second to add ‘O’ before they reply with ‘K’.
Smart phones have made us extremely lazy. We cringe to pick up the phone and have an actual conversation. We’d rather text with our textese, our own unique language with customised vocabulary and personal style. We devise new norms to adhere to and to judge others by. For instance, purists would tell you that the exclamation mark was traditionally used to indicate surprise. When you shout ‘surprise!’ at a surprise birthday party, for example. Or is used to show vehemence, like “Get off my spot!” But of late, the punctuation mark has been going on overkill. “Hey!!! What are you doing?!!” says the friend who frankly doesn’t give a damn.
A ‘hey’ with a single ‘y’ has become an unenthusiastic. ‘Heyy’ shows interest. ‘Heyyy’ is borderline flirting and ‘Heyyyyy’is just plain creepy. Many would agree that ‘Lol’ (laugh out loud) hardly stands for what it started out with. ‘Lol’ is the new ‘okay’. At times it’s measly politeness, especially when a friend says something supposedly witty and you aren’t too amused. Likewise, a plain ha-ha has become lame, fake almost. The more ‘ha’s the better, except when it’s Muahaha. That’s Joker having the last laugh.
You think teachers must be a happy lot, with all phones coming with an in-built dictionary. It requires determination to defy the auto-correct and get a spelling wrong. Unfortunately, exam papers and class assignments now lay strewn with acronyms and shoddy spellings. While students type out superlative text messages on autopilot, the same dictionary slowly erases the memory of all spellings from their brains. Come exams, they stutter and start scribbling to mask their mistakes.
To text with ease or text traditional? To nitpick or let it go. Is he being friendly or flirty? Goodnight or nite? That’s the question. Maybe the Emoji will be our answer.
(The author blogs at www.awakeningthelotuseater.blogspot.in)