Do Yhoo Knoww Thee Answerrr?
December 3, 2010 3:37 AM
Whyy Do Teenagerss on Facebook An Bebo Typee Likee Thiss? Where did it come from? Here's an example.
Sure, I know each generation invents its own slang, but I wonder where this style has come from. In the UK, it's seen as a 'chav''/'chavvy' way of communicating - if there is a class thing about it elsewhere, I'm not sure.
In My Day, teens wrote in textspeak a lot online, as we were one of the first generations to use texting on a daily basis. There's still a lot of 'ur mi m8' on the internets (I love it when teens write in a mixture of txtspk and dialect - eg, my nephew writes 'Or8 pal', which in his accent is 'alright' - phonetically written olreet) but this style seems new. Duplicating letters on the ends of words, spelling 'you' as 'yhoo'. It isn't timesaving - it would take longer to write like that - and although I thought the 'yhoo' might come from using predictive text, I can't see how it would.
More examples taken from random Bebo pages:
"Hmmmm Niceeeee Prawnn Currry Todayyy"
"6. Do Yhoo Luff Me....?
7. Are Yhoo My Mate....?
8. Do Yhoo Lyk Me....?
9. Wha Skwl Yhoo Go Too....?"
"Jusst alittle information about me ♥
Thaa namees Selena or Lena if yhOo want"
"Heyy guess huu tiss well itss Demi"
"still Cant Belive You Aree Gonee Girll'ss"
"Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)"
Sure, I know each generation invents its own slang, but I wonder where this style has come from. In the UK, it's seen as a 'chav''/'chavvy' way of communicating - if there is a class thing about it elsewhere, I'm not sure.
In My Day, teens wrote in textspeak a lot online, as we were one of the first generations to use texting on a daily basis. There's still a lot of 'ur mi m8' on the internets (I love it when teens write in a mixture of txtspk and dialect - eg, my nephew writes 'Or8 pal', which in his accent is 'alright' - phonetically written olreet) but this style seems new. Duplicating letters on the ends of words, spelling 'you' as 'yhoo'. It isn't timesaving - it would take longer to write like that - and although I thought the 'yhoo' might come from using predictive text, I can't see how it would.
More examples taken from random Bebo pages:
"Hmmmm Niceeeee Prawnn Currry Todayyy"
"6. Do Yhoo Luff Me....?
7. Are Yhoo My Mate....?
8. Do Yhoo Lyk Me....?
9. Wha Skwl Yhoo Go Too....?"
"Jusst alittle information about me ♥
Thaa namees Selena or Lena if yhOo want"
"Heyy guess huu tiss well itss Demi"
"still Cant Belive You Aree Gonee Girll'ss"
"Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)"
It's the same reason sOmE PeOpLe WoUlD TypE LiKe ThIs - despite the fact it takes longer. It's not about saving time like text-speak, it's about being different and rebelling against the "correct" way to write.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:52 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:52 AM on December 3, 2010
See also: cheezburger, which I credit with popularising it. I call this style of text LOLspeak.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:57 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by DarlingBri at 3:57 AM on December 3, 2010
Ends - I remember the tYpInG lIkE tHiS being really popular in the late 90s - along with having usernames like xthisx (I mean, other than straight-edge people - straight edge is a small thing outside the US)
posted by mippy at 4:01 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by mippy at 4:01 AM on December 3, 2010
How you spell is how you look in a text-only medium. You have to keep up with fashion and fit in with your friends while differentiating yourself from all of those people you don't want to be like (such as old people). Repeated letters turn a common error into a relaxed intentional don't-give-a-fuckness.
posted by pracowity at 4:13 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by pracowity at 4:13 AM on December 3, 2010
Basically somebody couldnt type correctly and all the teenagers said it looked cool. Also the sites reddit and 4chan (do not go here if you valkue your sanity) popularize things like this.
posted by majortom1981 at 4:18 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by majortom1981 at 4:18 AM on December 3, 2010
I often see the letter-dragging in words that are meant to be emphasized. Instead of writing "I love snow" or "I looooove snow," it's "I loveeeeee snow." I hate it.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:19 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:19 AM on December 3, 2010
majortom1981 - I see this on my nephew#s FB pages. Believe me, they do not visit reddit or 4Chan (I know what one of them looks at and would prefer I didn't know, but it was more conventional than shitting dick nipples). I have been on 4Chan myself and seen a lot of abbreviations and lower-case spelling, but never this type of writing.
I know it's impossible to determine where linguistic trends started (unless Amazon teenagers are writing like this after Carlyyy-Jadeee visited them on a gap year) given that teenagers as a whole are a pretty big group, but it must be something more than a few typos.
posted by mippy at 4:22 AM on December 3, 2010
I know it's impossible to determine where linguistic trends started (unless Amazon teenagers are writing like this after Carlyyy-Jadeee visited them on a gap year) given that teenagers as a whole are a pretty big group, but it must be something more than a few typos.
posted by mippy at 4:22 AM on December 3, 2010
I agree with Metroid Baby. I keep seeing things like "I hate my lifeeeeee" on FB et al, and I'm sure it's meant for emphasis. They just don't think about that when they're saying it, it would probably sound more like "liiiiiife," which is what we old farts would write.
posted by HopperFan at 4:22 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by HopperFan at 4:22 AM on December 3, 2010
Yes, except the MetroidBaby hypothesis loses value when applied to the example linked in the question by Mitty, which has a proud example of "withh" and "inn." I'm close enough in age to the people who write "lifeeeeeeeeee" that I understand that, but none of those would would regularly, and without fail, emphasize propositions (except for "off," but that and "too" are a little ambiguous about whether they are mistakes with emphasis or the correct word without emphasis) but never "the." And usually, the lengthen-ends-of-word-for-emphasis thing seems to be a three-letter-plus thing (lifeee, saddd), not merely adding one letter to the end of every word (see also, in the example linked, "norrr" instead of "nor," because test user S.M. seems to drop the end-of-word doubling in the comments and thus the three-letter lengthening is especially notable; as a counterpoint, "truee" by S.M. in the comments).
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:47 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:47 AM on December 3, 2010
"Do yhoo luff me?" just sounds like something from Fiddler On The Roof (YT) when I read it. So then it all gets translated into Fiddler On The Roof music.
posted by MeiraV at 4:59 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by MeiraV at 4:59 AM on December 3, 2010
Or, as another example posted by mitty: "Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)"
What English speaker in their right mind sees the sentence "When you smile, I smile" and thinks,
In short: the elongating the final syllable of prepositions thing is weird, as is the idea that they are legitimately emphasizing every single noun and verb in the sentence. I only see that if people are angsting: Iii haaaate myyy liiiifeeeee.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:59 AM on December 3, 2010
What English speaker in their right mind sees the sentence "When you smile, I smile" and thinks,
Goodness, you know what really needs to be emphasized in that sentence that is not specifically directed at a curmudgeonly bastard who never smiles? "When." Because I am clearly needing to emphasize both the act of smiling, and the time of smiling, but who gives a crap WHO I'm smiling for, amiright? I don't smile for you, I smile when! I am the frigging UPS of smiles, always on time!Noi! This would be a "i luv you girls/Jake" sort of statement, so the "you" should be emphasized. I almost always seen, among teenyboppers, the emphasis being placed on "you" and "smile" in that sort of sentence, like Justin Bieber does, while the elongated "smiiiile."
In short: the elongating the final syllable of prepositions thing is weird, as is the idea that they are legitimately emphasizing every single noun and verb in the sentence. I only see that if people are angsting: Iii haaaate myyy liiiifeeeee.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:59 AM on December 3, 2010
Fashion. Full stop. It's a modification of previous poor-spelling memes. In a few years it'll either be "everything must be spelled right" or "all consonants are shifted one key to the right, all commas are replaced by double quotation marks, and no sentence is complete without a random sprinkling of parentheses."
I hate it. Makes me feel old and like the world is doomed. Then I remember how at this age my cohorts were into bubblegum cigarettes and bursting into song like we were in a musical, and how the epitome of cool was to have the largest collection of (Troll dolls, plastic bracelets, Beabie Babies, etc.), and I resign myself to telling kids to get off the lawn I don't even own.
posted by SMPA at 5:11 AM on December 3, 2010
I hate it. Makes me feel old and like the world is doomed. Then I remember how at this age my cohorts were into bubblegum cigarettes and bursting into song like we were in a musical, and how the epitome of cool was to have the largest collection of (Troll dolls, plastic bracelets, Beabie Babies, etc.), and I resign myself to telling kids to get off the lawn I don't even own.
posted by SMPA at 5:11 AM on December 3, 2010
I've always taken it (from context) to mean not only the emphasis of individual words, but also to indicate tone of voice you have when you emphasize things.
Sort of like some people put on a fake high singsong and / or whiny voice to say stuff like "Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)" or "Hmmmm Niceeeee Prawnn Currry Todayyy".
So they always sound a bit like affected idiots in my mind, but maybe I just misunderstand the intentionnnnnnn.
posted by Omnomnom at 5:16 AM on December 3, 2010
Sort of like some people put on a fake high singsong and / or whiny voice to say stuff like "Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)" or "Hmmmm Niceeeee Prawnn Currry Todayyy".
So they always sound a bit like affected idiots in my mind, but maybe I just misunderstand the intentionnnnnnn.
posted by Omnomnom at 5:16 AM on December 3, 2010
The repeated letters certainly don't look like emphasizers to me unless they are strictly visual emphasizers, just filler to stretch the words into something larger than usual, and the writers are not pronouncing the words in their heads. When I read
"Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)"
I hear
"Whenn [with a slightly drawn out n sound] you smiley [significant pause] I smiley [followed by the mental image of an orthographically challenged person smiling gormlessly from ear to ear]."
posted by pracowity at 5:17 AM on December 3, 2010
"Whenn you smilee, . . . i smilee:)"
I hear
"Whenn [with a slightly drawn out n sound] you smiley [significant pause] I smiley [followed by the mental image of an orthographically challenged person smiling gormlessly from ear to ear]."
posted by pracowity at 5:17 AM on December 3, 2010
I know what you mean about emphasis - I do this if I write informally sometimes - but it wouldn't equally apply to every word. Prepositions being a good point.
I'm sure it is less about emphasis and more about fashion, but just as txtspk spellings came from use of mobile phones, and to an extent IM, I wonder where this has come from on social networking sites.
posted by mippy at 5:35 AM on December 3, 2010
I'm sure it is less about emphasis and more about fashion, but just as txtspk spellings came from use of mobile phones, and to an extent IM, I wonder where this has come from on social networking sites.
posted by mippy at 5:35 AM on December 3, 2010
I noticed when it began, when generally only the last letter of the sentence would be repeated, evidently to provide some sort of emphasis; I imagine it has grown since then. I disagree that it has anything to do with lolcats, however. lolcat language has its own idiosyncrasies of course, but repeated letters generally isn't one of them.
posted by InsanePenguin at 5:37 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by InsanePenguin at 5:37 AM on December 3, 2010
I agree wit omnomnom- it is the textual way to end words and sentences with question marks and to generally speak like a weirdo.
posted by gjc at 5:42 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by gjc at 5:42 AM on December 3, 2010
I would be amused if the elongated words were intended to represent autotuning.
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on December 3, 2010
"I think the question you need to ask yourself is why you feel compelled spend so much time looking at the facebook and bebo pages of teenage girls you don't even know."
I have a BA in Linguistics, and teenage nephews. (Oddly I find this style is used more by girls - boys still use a lot of txtspk. Do teenage boys text more?) I'm not on some sort of register. Unless there is a register for slang. The link in the OP was posted to Holy Moly this morning (with the comment 'If you don't understand this, you're too old.' which reminded me that this has been bugging me for a while.
noella - I was reading Oh No They Didn't a few days ago for some reason, and there were a lot of abbreviations like MTE and IKR which baffled me at first.
The question mark thing is popular with British teens, but not outside the South of England much (it seems to skew more middle-class).
posted by mippy at 6:17 AM on December 3, 2010
I have a BA in Linguistics, and teenage nephews. (Oddly I find this style is used more by girls - boys still use a lot of txtspk. Do teenage boys text more?) I'm not on some sort of register. Unless there is a register for slang. The link in the OP was posted to Holy Moly this morning (with the comment 'If you don't understand this, you're too old.' which reminded me that this has been bugging me for a while.
noella - I was reading Oh No They Didn't a few days ago for some reason, and there were a lot of abbreviations like MTE and IKR which baffled me at first.
The question mark thing is popular with British teens, but not outside the South of England much (it seems to skew more middle-class).
posted by mippy at 6:17 AM on December 3, 2010
I don't know, but it's one of the great scourges of the damn earth and I hate it.
I mean, there's a time to use it, like when you're purposefully trying to be cute and/or whiny. It tends to crop up in my own writing when I'm being playfully plaintive with a close friend. "Nooooo comee viissiitt meeeeeee", "Hiiiii" etc etc and the like. But for every flipping sentence? No. Die in a fire. I don't want to read it. I don't want to imagine you saying it. I want it to go away.
Ridiculous. I'm embarrassed just thinking about it.
posted by patronuscharms at 6:28 AM on December 3, 2010
I mean, there's a time to use it, like when you're purposefully trying to be cute and/or whiny. It tends to crop up in my own writing when I'm being playfully plaintive with a close friend. "Nooooo comee viissiitt meeeeeee", "Hiiiii" etc etc and the like. But for every flipping sentence? No. Die in a fire. I don't want to read it. I don't want to imagine you saying it. I want it to go away.
Ridiculous. I'm embarrassed just thinking about it.
posted by patronuscharms at 6:28 AM on December 3, 2010
Thanks for asking this question! I have a teenage relative friended on facebook and she writes like this. I figured I was just Officially Old (tm) and didn't get it.
Interesting about the class stuff. She's the only teenager I know who does that and I definitely would consider her family upper middle class. My other teenaged relative, whose family is in the lower middle class, doesn't do that at all. Of course, this one lives in a much more rural area and mostly posts Bible quotes. I guess "Itt is easierrrr for a camelllll to go through the eyeeee offff a needleeeee" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
posted by sugarfish at 6:29 AM on December 3, 2010
Interesting about the class stuff. She's the only teenager I know who does that and I definitely would consider her family upper middle class. My other teenaged relative, whose family is in the lower middle class, doesn't do that at all. Of course, this one lives in a much more rural area and mostly posts Bible quotes. I guess "Itt is easierrrr for a camelllll to go through the eyeeee offff a needleeeee" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
posted by sugarfish at 6:29 AM on December 3, 2010
It seeemsss to be prettyy funnn to dooooo.
posted by PersonAndSalt at 6:34 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by PersonAndSalt at 6:34 AM on December 3, 2010
Oh, and since you hang out on ONTD as well, here's a quick field guide to the frequently used acronyms and net-lingo we seem to use on a daily basis:
• HBIC: Head Bitch In Charge; applicable to most female pop stars, Hollywood actresses of a certain age, and particularly sassy gay men
• DIAF: Die In a Fire; frequently used to express utter disgust over a person/place/thing's behavior and/or overall demeanor
• HDU: How Dare You!
• "Stan" (n, v 'to stan') and "Stanning" (v): abbreviation of Stalker-Fan. Fanning someone or something to the point of obnoxious obsession/aggressive behavior
I'll have to think about more... But I feel like ONTD is a hive of linguistic development in and of itself. Amazing, yeah?
posted by patronuscharms at 6:38 AM on December 3, 2010
• HBIC: Head Bitch In Charge; applicable to most female pop stars, Hollywood actresses of a certain age, and particularly sassy gay men
• DIAF: Die In a Fire; frequently used to express utter disgust over a person/place/thing's behavior and/or overall demeanor
• HDU: How Dare You!
• "Stan" (n, v 'to stan') and "Stanning" (v): abbreviation of Stalker-Fan. Fanning someone or something to the point of obnoxious obsession/aggressive behavior
I'll have to think about more... But I feel like ONTD is a hive of linguistic development in and of itself. Amazing, yeah?
posted by patronuscharms at 6:38 AM on December 3, 2010
Ha, I thought it was because they had fat fingers or thumbs for their phones. Also the decline of teaching proper typing in school. But I am old and my lawn is large, very large.
posted by jadepearl at 6:49 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by jadepearl at 6:49 AM on December 3, 2010
It's most likely a result of texting on their phones. Trying to text isn't easy and if they mistype it doesn't make sense to go back and edit so they just post as is.
posted by JJ86 at 6:50 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by JJ86 at 6:50 AM on December 3, 2010
Oh, and since you hang out on ONTD as well, here's a quick field guide to the frequently used acronyms and net-lingo we seem to use on a daily basis
I post on another forum which has spawned its own argot - 'van bangers' for people who turn up to protest at the trials of paedophiles, 'teed' for tedious people, and I'm sure there are many others. So much so that I use them in real life and forget that I'm speaking to people who conduct their friendships through actual conversations with their mouths.
posted by mippy at 6:53 AM on December 3, 2010
I post on another forum which has spawned its own argot - 'van bangers' for people who turn up to protest at the trials of paedophiles, 'teed' for tedious people, and I'm sure there are many others. So much so that I use them in real life and forget that I'm speaking to people who conduct their friendships through actual conversations with their mouths.
posted by mippy at 6:53 AM on December 3, 2010
My Verizon phone (with teeny QWERTY keyboard) constantly doubles the last letter. Being a ridiculous old person, I go back and correct it. I suspect it started off as just a common mistake, then became slang, like "teh" for "the".
posted by JoanArkham at 6:55 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by JoanArkham at 6:55 AM on December 3, 2010
Teed? See, now that's a functional word right there. Definitely going to be incorporating that into a conversation soon. :D
posted by patronuscharms at 7:01 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by patronuscharms at 7:01 AM on December 3, 2010
Be aware that many people are now posting on Facebook through their cellphones.
posted by JJ86 at 7:06 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by JJ86 at 7:06 AM on December 3, 2010
Transition between thoughts:
There is a full thought, often some variant of, "I don't want to go to school. Fuck." Then you hold down the last key until another thought comes. This will translate to, "I don't want to go to school fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk lets go get lattessssssssss, did you see what she was wearinggggg she looked like a trampppp!!!!!!"
posted by karminai at 7:08 AM on December 3, 2010
There is a full thought, often some variant of, "I don't want to go to school. Fuck." Then you hold down the last key until another thought comes. This will translate to, "I don't want to go to school fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk lets go get lattessssssssss, did you see what she was wearinggggg she looked like a trampppp!!!!!!"
posted by karminai at 7:08 AM on December 3, 2010
It was explained to me that the repetition of the last letter represents the word being verbally drawn out, though this is a terrible way to represent those sounds. So, where the word is typed "loveeeeeeeeeeee", it's intended effect is "loooooooooooove." Any confirmation of this?
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:32 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by Kitty Stardust at 7:32 AM on December 3, 2010
It's not just English-speaking kids, either. I hosted a French teenager this summer and am now Facebook friends with her, and she and her friends write absolutely incomprehensibly in some kind of French/punctuation/dingbats kind of speak that is very similar to the virtually nonsensical quasi-English-language typings my teenaged American nieces use. These are educated, intelligent, middle-to-upper-middle class young people with perfectly functional fingers and devices.
I feel like the upside to this is that whatever they're babbling about is so impossible to understand that it won't come back to bite them in the ass some day when they're trying to get jobs and potential employers google them.
posted by padraigin at 7:40 AM on December 3, 2010
I feel like the upside to this is that whatever they're babbling about is so impossible to understand that it won't come back to bite them in the ass some day when they're trying to get jobs and potential employers google them.
posted by padraigin at 7:40 AM on December 3, 2010
Yeah, I've seen a kind of alphanumeric typing used by Egyptian Facebook users too. Perhaps because QWERTY keyboards are more common than Arabic ones...
posted by mippy at 7:55 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by mippy at 7:55 AM on December 3, 2010
I'm guessing here, but could it come from ellipses? It's dramatic to end a sentence with this... So it must be even more dramatic to end a sentence with this......... Soo maybee it'ss evenn moree dramaticc too writee CHRIST I CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS
posted by foursentences at 8:04 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by foursentences at 8:04 AM on December 3, 2010
I've also noticed the double spelling happens in names too - so your child relatives Katy and Jane become 'Kaytieee' and JaanieeBaibee'. Though this isn't new - a girl at school rechristened herself 'Ema'
posted by mippy at 8:14 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by mippy at 8:14 AM on December 3, 2010
Because it's perceived as cool. Kids these days still spread norms of coolness by "word of mouth" (in person, in places like school) so you may not find some big internet meme behind it.
It might just be that Cool Caitie wrote "I lovee myy babyy Joshh!" in an attempt to be cutesy and all her friends took to it and it spread.
Also, I know that my mom gives up really fast if something isn't super easy on the eyes to read, so maybe on a subconscious level, teh kids sense that it makes their facebook musings less likely to be closely read by parents (because parents don't know about Joshh!).
posted by WeekendJen at 8:27 AM on December 3, 2010
It might just be that Cool Caitie wrote "I lovee myy babyy Joshh!" in an attempt to be cutesy and all her friends took to it and it spread.
Also, I know that my mom gives up really fast if something isn't super easy on the eyes to read, so maybe on a subconscious level, teh kids sense that it makes their facebook musings less likely to be closely read by parents (because parents don't know about Joshh!).
posted by WeekendJen at 8:27 AM on December 3, 2010
Super Fast Google Autofill allows you to map how popular each extra letter is. I've no idea what it all means either, but I like that the number of results for each version of the word "going" goes a little like this:
going 780M
goingg 22K
goinggg 71K
goingggg 94K
goinggggg 13K
goingggggg 10K
goinggggggg 1.7M
goingggggggg 100K
goinggggggggg 2K
goinggggggg seems to spike the results somewhat. No idea why that may be & google only seems to show results for "going". Weird. Whatever it is.
posted by seanyboy at 9:02 AM on December 3, 2010
going 780M
goingg 22K
goinggg 71K
goingggg 94K
goinggggg 13K
goingggggg 10K
goinggggggg 1.7M
goingggggggg 100K
goinggggggggg 2K
goinggggggg seems to spike the results somewhat. No idea why that may be & google only seems to show results for "going". Weird. Whatever it is.
posted by seanyboy at 9:02 AM on December 3, 2010
Its two things:
1) Your smart enough to spell, so to make yourself cool you break the rules.
2) Your dumb and you can't spell.
posted by jasondigitized at 9:17 AM on December 3, 2010
1) Your smart enough to spell, so to make yourself cool you break the rules.
2) Your dumb and you can't spell.
posted by jasondigitized at 9:17 AM on December 3, 2010
I just messaged my teenage niece on facebook, as she is the only person I know that does this. I'll let you know what I find out.
She may just respond that I am too old to be allowed the secretttt knowledgeeee, but whateverrrr!
posted by orme at 9:27 AM on December 3, 2010
She may just respond that I am too old to be allowed the secretttt knowledgeeee, but whateverrrr!
posted by orme at 9:27 AM on December 3, 2010
Your smart enough to spell, so to make yourself cool you break the rules.
My smart still doesn't get how this style started, though. Misspelling is one thing but this is a definite style, if you see what I mean.
I Finddd It Reallii Harddd Too Readd Aswell
posted by mippy at 9:29 AM on December 3, 2010
My smart still doesn't get how this style started, though. Misspelling is one thing but this is a definite style, if you see what I mean.
I Finddd It Reallii Harddd Too Readd Aswell
posted by mippy at 9:29 AM on December 3, 2010
Oh, I'm so happy to see this question. We have friends in Ireland with preteen kids, and their Facebook postings are endlessly fascinating to me.
Heyy, I'm Garrett, Live in Cushinstown, I play drums! Oh yesh! :P" I live for music, sport & friends.... :D Later dudess..! :P
Casting another vote for "It's cool to break the rules! Identify!"
posted by Skot at 9:30 AM on December 3, 2010
Heyy, I'm Garrett, Live in Cushinstown, I play drums! Oh yesh! :P" I live for music, sport & friends.... :D Later dudess..! :P
Casting another vote for "It's cool to break the rules! Identify!"
posted by Skot at 9:30 AM on December 3, 2010
I think it's a combination of phones like mine which spit out double letters willy-nilly (and teens who don't care enough to go back and fix it), and what JoanArkham said above: that they mean looooooove but they spell it loveeeeeeeee because they think it's easier to hold down the last key of the word for some reason.
And I agree that it makes them look like idiots.
posted by bink at 9:44 AM on December 3, 2010
And I agree that it makes them look like idiots.
posted by bink at 9:44 AM on December 3, 2010
seanyboy: "goinggggggg seems to spike the results somewhat. No idea why that may be & google only seems to show results for "going". Weird."
You can generate instant charts for repeated queries like this using this tool. For instance, the results for "love*" (love, lovee, loveee, loveeee, etc.).
posted by Rhaomi at 9:46 AM on December 3, 2010
You can generate instant charts for repeated queries like this using this tool. For instance, the results for "love*" (love, lovee, loveee, loveeee, etc.).
posted by Rhaomi at 9:46 AM on December 3, 2010
I just tried that Google search and it came up with this article which has some good examples of the kind of thing I mean. Interestingly, one types with the upper case on each word (there's a more technical term for this but it escapes me), and another mixes in text speak: "Now n alwaiiss nevaa forget thatt"
posted by mippy at 10:13 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by mippy at 10:13 AM on December 3, 2010
We're noting that it slows down our reading comprehension. Maybe if your reading comprehension is already very poor, you don't lose as much speed -- and so writing like that actually makes them faster readers, relative to the average reader of the same text.
posted by foursentences at 10:17 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by foursentences at 10:17 AM on December 3, 2010
Back in the very old days of handwriting you could express yourself by developing a unique cursive style, or using a sparkle pen, or drawing little doodles. These days all you get is letters, so you do what you can with them.
I agree with the others in that it is pure fashion and signaling group membership. And I will point out that by making all of us feel old and excluded it seems to be working as intended.
posted by PercussivePaul at 10:29 AM on December 3, 2010
I agree with the others in that it is pure fashion and signaling group membership. And I will point out that by making all of us feel old and excluded it seems to be working as intended.
posted by PercussivePaul at 10:29 AM on December 3, 2010
I think it might be like exclamation points; a way to express enthusiasm (or simple emphasis), which I think teenage girls -- especially -- like to do a lot. It's more interesting, however, than a lot of !!!!!!!!
posted by PersonAndSalt at 10:36 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by PersonAndSalt at 10:36 AM on December 3, 2010
I love that language is constantly evolving. I can also appreciate it being a form of an "argot" that let kids have something special, like an inside joke, that they all get. I understand that it's a way to express that it's communication i'm not supposed to understand.
...but the thing that frightens me (and no, i'm not using that word loosely) is that these kids don't seem to be able to separate it from their non-friend correspondence.
When a new culinary school quarter starts up (it seems to be about every three months) I get a rash of e-mail from first-quarter students who have to interview a chef. I can't believe how bad the grammar/spelling/punctuation is in these letters! UR not snding me txt looser, so f u wnt me 2 rply, pls spel it all out, rite 2me w full wrds and uz rl grammar FOR REALZZZZZZZ. The last time I granted an interview to someone, I asked her to send me what she wrote. What she sent back to me, as a CC to her Chef-Instructor, was incoherent. It was really sad.
posted by ChefJoAnna at 11:00 AM on December 3, 2010
...but the thing that frightens me (and no, i'm not using that word loosely) is that these kids don't seem to be able to separate it from their non-friend correspondence.
When a new culinary school quarter starts up (it seems to be about every three months) I get a rash of e-mail from first-quarter students who have to interview a chef. I can't believe how bad the grammar/spelling/punctuation is in these letters! UR not snding me txt looser, so f u wnt me 2 rply, pls spel it all out, rite 2me w full wrds and uz rl grammar FOR REALZZZZZZZ. The last time I granted an interview to someone, I asked her to send me what she wrote. What she sent back to me, as a CC to her Chef-Instructor, was incoherent. It was really sad.
posted by ChefJoAnna at 11:00 AM on December 3, 2010
padraigin: I hosted a French teenager this summer and am now Facebook friends with her, and she and her friends write absolutely incomprehensibly in some kind of French/punctuation/dingbats kind of speak
That's interesting. Could you quote an example or link somewhere where this is in evidence?
posted by Kattullus at 11:02 AM on December 3, 2010
That's interesting. Could you quote an example or link somewhere where this is in evidence?
posted by Kattullus at 11:02 AM on December 3, 2010
My teener cousins do this on FB, it drives me NUTS. I called them out on it for weeks, then I just hid them. Veryyyyyy annoyinggggggg.
posted by nevercalm at 11:23 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by nevercalm at 11:23 AM on December 3, 2010
Is this not something a real live teenager could answer? Are there no teenagers on MetaFilter?
posted by pracowity at 11:30 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by pracowity at 11:30 AM on December 3, 2010
I've noticed this too. I assumed it was just another shibboleth. Similar to the way that my cohort (internet-savvy nerds over the age of 30) will deliberately use misspellings like "teh" and "borken." Not to mention innernet/innernets/internets/innertubes/tubes et al.
posted by ErikaB at 11:31 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by ErikaB at 11:31 AM on December 3, 2010
Many teenage girls type like that in Spanish too. The girls from my sample don't access Facebook through their phones, so it has nothing to do with key entry. It's just a trend, it makes the text look "cuter" and gives emphasis to certain words.
posted by clearlydemon at 11:40 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by clearlydemon at 11:40 AM on December 3, 2010
Oh, hey. Looks I did it myself earlier today. (Stupid phone!)
posted by JoanArkham at 11:45 AM on December 3, 2010
posted by JoanArkham at 11:45 AM on December 3, 2010
Speling is obsoleet.
posted by vitabellosi at 1:05 PM on December 3, 2010
posted by vitabellosi at 1:05 PM on December 3, 2010
Ok, so here's my 13 year old niece's reply to my question:
Wwwhhhaaaaattt aaaaaa wwweeeeiiirddddoooo!!!!! its for fun and excitement. for instance, if i were going to hang out with you, my statis would be "hangin with orme". but..if it were any other person jt would be "hhhaaaannnggiiin wwiittth insert name here. so there ya go! (:
As you can see, she apparently has no idea what she's talking about if she thinks that I am the weirdo here. Also she makes her emoticons backwards, so what does that tell you?
posted by orme at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2010
Wwwhhhaaaaattt aaaaaa wwweeeeiiirddddoooo!!!!! its for fun and excitement. for instance, if i were going to hang out with you, my statis would be "hangin with orme". but..if it were any other person jt would be "hhhaaaannnggiiin wwiittth insert name here. so there ya go! (:
As you can see, she apparently has no idea what she's talking about if she thinks that I am the weirdo here. Also she makes her emoticons backwards, so what does that tell you?
posted by orme at 1:18 PM on December 3, 2010
Teenager here. I tend to write like that a lot more on msn than facebook. Infact looking at my profile, it's very rare that I write like that on facebook. I think it's mostly a friendliness thing, it can seem quite cold to have a chatty conversation when using capitals letters and proper punctuation, so out come the extended letterssss.
Other than that, fashion. In the UK, a lot of middle class teenagers see text speak as 'chavvy', so this is just a different way of expressing yourself.
(Orme, about the backwards emoticons thing - a lot of people do it to avoid the horrible smiley faces that msn changes a normal emoticon into)
posted by nvsbl at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2010
Other than that, fashion. In the UK, a lot of middle class teenagers see text speak as 'chavvy', so this is just a different way of expressing yourself.
(Orme, about the backwards emoticons thing - a lot of people do it to avoid the horrible smiley faces that msn changes a normal emoticon into)
posted by nvsbl at 1:31 PM on December 3, 2010
Heeeyyyyy kidddddsssssss getttttt offffffff myyyyyy lawnnnnn!
It's to annoy the olds. More power to you, kids; this is a lot easier (and less infect-y) than our self-piercing with safety pinsssssssssssss.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:33 PM on December 3, 2010
It's to annoy the olds. More power to you, kids; this is a lot easier (and less infect-y) than our self-piercing with safety pinsssssssssssss.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:33 PM on December 3, 2010
Ah, see, as a teen I wrote as I do now - even with texts which was seen as most odd- so it's kind of code switching then! :)
Interesting that it's for MSN for you but not on Facebook.
Interesting you say it's to avoid being chavvy - nephews live in a v.working class town and it's used a lot there...but so is txtspk. I was led to believe only 'old' people were using this in actual texts these days though! My mum and sister are the only people I know who text/email this way and they are 40 and 63.
posted by mippy at 3:35 PM on December 3, 2010
Interesting that it's for MSN for you but not on Facebook.
Interesting you say it's to avoid being chavvy - nephews live in a v.working class town and it's used a lot there...but so is txtspk. I was led to believe only 'old' people were using this in actual texts these days though! My mum and sister are the only people I know who text/email this way and they are 40 and 63.
posted by mippy at 3:35 PM on December 3, 2010
ErikaB: " I assumed it was just another shibboleth. Similar to the way that my cohort (internet-savvy nerds over the age of 30) will deliberately use misspellings like "teh" and "borken.""
Please tell me you mean b0rked? Because at least "teh" and "b0rked" are... things.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:18 PM on December 3, 2010
Please tell me you mean b0rked? Because at least "teh" and "b0rked" are... things.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:18 PM on December 3, 2010
• "Stan" (n, v 'to stan') and "Stanning" (v): abbreviation of Stalker-Fan. Fanning someone or something to the point of obnoxious obsession/aggressive behavior
I think this has more to do with the song "Stan," by Eminem.
posted by asciident at 8:48 PM on December 3, 2010
I think this has more to do with the song "Stan," by Eminem.
posted by asciident at 8:48 PM on December 3, 2010
UR not snding me txt looser, so f u wnt me 2 rply, pls spel it all out, rite 2me w full wrds and uz rl grammar FOR REALZZZZZZZ.
this reminds me of an assignment I received, when teaching a class some years ago. Three pages of this. I returned the assignment to the student and asked him to try again.
posted by seawallrunner at 8:58 PM on December 3, 2010
this reminds me of an assignment I received, when teaching a class some years ago. Three pages of this. I returned the assignment to the student and asked him to try again.
posted by seawallrunner at 8:58 PM on December 3, 2010
My cousin and sister (teenagers, upper-middle class I guess) write like this in Spanish (and so do their friends). It doesn't look as "wrong" in Spanish as it does in English because you can drag words/sounds out like that in Spanish when you speak it, so it looks like sort of writing-as-you-speak... overall it just gives a kind of cutesy, hyper impression.
The capitalizing-every-word I'm not sure of, another cousin does that on Facebook (she is college-aged). I personally thought it was whatever she was using to text with did it automatically, but I haven't seen anyone else I know do it - I wasn't aware it's a thing, but I suppose it is looking at the link above.
posted by flex at 9:06 PM on December 3, 2010
The capitalizing-every-word I'm not sure of, another cousin does that on Facebook (she is college-aged). I personally thought it was whatever she was using to text with did it automatically, but I haven't seen anyone else I know do it - I wasn't aware it's a thing, but I suppose it is looking at the link above.
posted by flex at 9:06 PM on December 3, 2010
When I was a teeenager (late 90s) I intentionallly tripled every double lettter in my typing. For me it indicated that my life was so fulll of awesome things that it kinda overflowed into my typing, and this is what I told people who asked. But I purposefullly picked a typing quirk that (hopefullly) wouldn't bother/disrupt reading too much.
posted by itesser at 6:42 AM on December 4, 2010
posted by itesser at 6:42 AM on December 4, 2010
« Older Simple Netflix streaming device for Canada? | Did I burn out this cast-iron skillet? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by crankylex at 3:46 AM on December 3, 2010