Chating pet peeves…
Pointless rant. Don’t read.
OK, so I work as programmer during the day. That being the case, I am on the computer a lot, and tend to have a lot of chat going on. Like everything else, the more you use something, the more the inherent flaws in the system come out. In this case, its not the chat software so much as the meat sacks working the keyboards on the other end.
Chatting is a unique medium for communication. Chatting and Message boards are, I think, the first real “new” ways of talking to another human since the invention of the telephone. It allows people to be semi-anonymous douchebags at the speed of light. (Email does not really count, as I see it as derivative of traditional snail mail, just faster.)
The problems with chat tend to be twofold. Mis-spelling and misuse of abbreviation. I mis-spell all the time. I’m a product of a public school system, so ..there you have it.
In terms of abbreviations, I have come to terms with LOL and ROTFL. My current pet peeve would be the terms “meh”, “mer” and “mhm” and variants on those. These are an incredibly good way to shutdown a conversation. I mean.. what the hell. All three instantly give me the impression that the other person is done talking or is too busy to talk to me and does not want a response.
When I make a semi-intelligible comment to someone and get a “mhm”, I can instantly feel the white hot rage of a thousand suns coursing through my tortured veins. I long to tear the figurative heads from those who have wronged me and line the battlements of my big emotionally angry castle with the remains of their egos.
Garrr.
