About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

24 Voice Experience 1 (2012-2013)

handle is hein.aba/voiex0024 and id is 1 raw text is: 77.4 ...... . . .. .. . .S ............ . .. ... ... ... How to Talk to Grandchildren: Abbreviations for Texting, Tweeting, and Other Internet Communications By Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr. A fter I finished a recent presentation on the sub- ject of social media, a Acolleague in attendance confidentially told me that he had no idea what we were talking about when the panel discussion turned to popular Internet abbreviations such as OMG, PITA, and WTE My col- league's candor gave me the idea for an article as an aid to other similarly situated colleagues. To be sure, many of today's abbre- viations were well known before the Internet became integrated into con- temporary society. Most among my generational colleagues will recognize old abbreviations such as TGIF, KISS, BS, AWOL, ASAI, SWAK, VIP, and TLC and other acronyms such as CD (meaning either certificate of deposit or compact disc) that have developed additional meaning over time. But now, in today's Internet new media age, society's use of abbrevia- tions is on steroids. These linguistic shortcuts are in constant use in exchanges sent by text, tweet, instant message, and other new forms of communication. How did we get to this point of excess abbreviations? Consider, first, the restricted-charac- ter limitations of two media formats, text messaging and Twitter. Text messaging is the granddaddy of social media as far as abbrevia- tions are concerned. Credit for the development of text messaging is given to Friedhelm Hillebrand, a communications researcher and chairman of the Nonvoice Services Committee within the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The GSM is a group that sets stan- dards for the majority of the global mobile market products. In 1985, Hillebrand and others were investi- gating the possibility of a technology standard for cell phones to transmit continued on page 13 1 - Published in The Voice of Experience, Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2012. C 2012 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most