Composing and Sending SMS Messages

Just when you thought you were relatively speedy at typing out those emails all day, along comes a new way of getting your message across. However, this is not like the kind of typing that you learned in the ninth grade. This is the new world, which requires a new way of thinking about text input. Humans always seem to seek the path of least resistance, and laboriously pecking out those lengthy text messages begged for some relief. So, along came the text acronym to the rescue. Now, text messaging can't claim all the glory for the rise of this new form of digital slang (or, as some claim, language butchery). To be fair, much of the credit goes to two-way pagers and the instant-messaging world. However, the rapid proliferation of texting has pushed the micro-language of acronyms to new complexity and popularity.

Now this new bastardized language isn't all bad. In fact its acronyms relieve you from laboriously typing out those long words and replaces them with much shorter words or numbers that, if read out loud, probably will sound the same, and end up getting the message across. Take a look at this chart and keep it handy when you text. Not only will it save you time and effort, but because most carriers limit the text messages you send or receive to 100 to 150 characters, it will also allow you to pack more information into a 10¢ message. However, even though you may feel very clever sending these cryptic messages, if the person on the other end isn't as cool as you (or is older than, say, 25 years old), he or she may have no idea what you're talking about.