hi how r u?

I don't know about anyone else but I have recently heard more of this. Without adding my personal opinion, what exactly does this say about the person who is saying it? I am just curious about what others think.

I B OK , sup?

Ive noticed this to. I figured its becuase the longer SL is around and the more average people come to play it - rather than the early adopters more accomtomed to articulate text conversations on the net.

Yay for voice - they will talk stupid in two formats.

OMG, does this mean I have to stop with the "LOL"?

Hahahahahaha.

*scritches his head.. hrmm?*

Well, I use regular things as lol and afk. Those don't bother me... but apart from that I try to keep my language "normal". Basically I dislike MSN/IRC/<whatever>-language>. I think it looks ugly.

Morwen.

This might indicate the person does a lot of text messaging on cellphones.

It could also indicate the person has a high verbal aptitude and finds the use of this shorthand to be an amusing affectation, much as people might find using pig latin or speaking in Klingon amusing.

It might mean the person is drunk or otherwise inebriated and figures less characters means less typos.

Possibly they could be typing with one hand while using the other hand for other matters.

Maybe it's an old person that finds typing like the kids a pleasant challenge.

It could be someone for whom English is a second language that finds spelling in English to be extremely difficult so they gave up and decided to use the hip shorthand instead.

Maybe the person is physically keyboard impaired and is using a mouse to select characters from a virtual keyboard, in which case the use of fewer letters is a big aid in entering text at an acceptable rate.

Or it could mean we actually speak that way.

a/s/l?

And the odds of any of those combined, I'm sure, is only a fraction of the chance it's a lazy typist who'd rather put the onus of communication on the reader rather than themselves as it should be.

"anti speech language" ?

Maybe it says they are wondering how you are?

Hello there..............how are you this fine evening? I was wondering who you were and perhaps where you might reside. And I'm 26 years old. Care to say how old you are?

Oooops..........to wordy LOL

oic, u r bn funny.




My granpda had one twenty five years ago:

m r dux.
m r not!
o s m r
a r?
s! c m e d b d wings?
l i b! m r dux!

Lilliput I know what they are trying to say. I guess you missed the point of my question. What I am asking is what kind of person would say "how r u"?

I don't think much can be gathered as far as the quality or general characteristics of someone based on the phrase "hi how r u?". Dive deeper into the conversation, and you may find the answers you seek about the person in question. "Netspeak", I believe is a common term for abbreviated, text-oriented, language usage; I think it's fairly common on the internet.

Oh, it was a joke. Sorry. I should have added the sarcastic grin.

My real answer would be that the vast majority of conversations I've had that began like this ended shortly after, without any significant insights being exchanged, and I usually assume that trend will continue if I meet a chat speaker. I am almost certain that efficiency is not the explanation for chat speak because there is almost always an extremely long pause between the time I reply, "fine," and when the chat speaker says, "Where u from?"

Neverthless, I have met a few interesting people that do it out of habit, I guess.

Granted, but that sort of explanation is no fun to think about.

All that text speak drives me crazy. I am trying to break the habit of even using lol, preferring ha ha instead. What's even worse is the gangsta text that I see popping up in some of my student's assignments. I wish the Chinese would hurry up and take over the world so we can do away with it.....lol...I mean ha ha.

When people talk like that It could mean that english is their second language (as sue said). It could also mean that they are too lazy that they cannot hit the extra keys that are exactly 7/16ths of an inch apart from eachother.

Alot of my suspicion comes at the person being underaged... Since secondlife has allowed unverified accounts, thus allowing young children online at some extent.. Ususally if you are chatting with someone on some other game that is underaged, they usually take the vowls out of words, maybe because they mispell the words anyways (yes I know I mispell alot too)...
But that is my light on it, anywho...

Not a bad observation, Joker. I sort of have similar thoughts on that too.

I love your grandpa! It took me a sec, but this cracked me up. Thank you.

I'm finding that in-world I am falling into chat speak. In social conversation it does take a long time to type what I want to say. There is so much going on at once. I want to type my say quickly and read what others have to say and often I am sight-seeing all at the same time. Sometimes when I am with someone I am close to there is so much I want to say to them it comes out in a rush. It seems that in in-world chat everyone makes typos and we ignore them in the heat of wanting to communicate.

For myself, this forum is a different context. There is all the time in the world to use all one's powers of communication. Standard spelling, capitalization and grammer make for easier, more pleasant reading. Barely comprehensible writing drains the punch from what that person is saying. I am aware that some are writing in english as a second language and some have keyboard or cognitive limitations. I still much appreciate forum posters who make the effort to be readable.

Except that chat-speak is harder to understand than standard English. They don't teach chat-speak at school, funnily enough.
I'm more inclined to think that someone who uses a lot of chat-speak, does so in their mother-language.

Like Ketra, I think they are just lazy

I think the unabashed use of text speak is most often a generational thing.

Those of us who grew up e-mailing and are touch-typists think text speak is lazy. Those who grew up typing by thumb think it is normal. Some who grew up pre e-mail hate the LOLs, emoticons, etc.

So if someone said "how r u" to me, I would assume that they were under 30 - probably under 25 and possibly not supposed to be on the adult grid. I'd also expect the next questions to be age and location. *zzzzzz*

Objecting to text speak and other written slang, makes us old fogeys!

Arrghh, "how r u" is one of my big pet peeves. (Right next to the whole your/you're thing and people who can't spell "masturbate."

I will use a few abbreviations, but they are ones that either have gained a meaning separate from the original abbreviation (lol, RL) or are time savers (afaik, btw).

And the proper answer to a/s/l:

A: older than you
S: no, thank you
L: I was just going. kthxbye!