I'm starting a movement

I don't understand 98% of all abbreviations used online. I know LOL (Laughing out loud) LMAO (Laughing my ass off) and YMMV (your milage may vary). But that's it. And the last one, YMMV, I would never have figured out on my own; a friend told me what it meant. The abbreviations seem to come out of thin air. It's as if I suddenly started typing YCBAHTWBYCMID and expected people to know what I was talking about (You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it drink). I think it's most discouraging, especially on a medium where for perhaps the first time in history we can try and promote writing as a skill and art form for almost anyone and everyone to participate. It is no longer something beholden to a literary elite but open to anyone who has a computer. An age of literary enlightenment is on the precipice of our generation; all we have to do is reach for it.

In the same vein I'm rallying forces against smiley faces. In a medium where the nuanced written word - the well crafted sentence - can convey a myriad of emotions and ideas we instead use a little smiley face. I was hoping that as a culture we have progressed past the era of the pictogram (as I thought it went out with papyrus). Instead of writing a well thought out sentence to convey our thoughts we type :). I find it disheartening - and I write that instead of typing in :(

Though I might have used the abbreviations - and even the smiley faces - in the past, starting now, NEVER AGAIN.

I'm starting a movement, is anyone with me?

this post, no ending catchphrase. I'm letting the post speak for itself.

jump to see what happened.