eli5:Why? Just why is everything abbrevated in english?

178 views

I am not a native english speaker and whenever i see an abbreviation i go “ah shit here we go again” like wtf is RSI? It could mean 5 billion things if not trillion, i know its contextual but like its close to impossible for me at least to understand what is meant when someone uses it sarcastically

In: 0

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Communication has evolved from letters(where you had to proofread) to email to texts(maximum character limit) to now Instant messaging (instant feed back of when it is read, when someone is typing and the urgency to reply before the subject changes in a chat room/trending topic).

Abreviations were mostly for long technical terms in professional fields but as social media started getting professionals from all fields having their discussions in the open, lots of those abreviations became popular.

On the other end, Twitter used to have a character limit just like SMS messages did so it was important to use abreviations like WTF, LOL, ASL, WYM, WYA, OMW to save characters and time for frequently used replies.

You are viewing 1 out of 5 answers, click here to view all answers.