Are we really that lazy?

(I'll warn you.  This is a shower post.  It was brilliant.  Let's see where it stands now.)

Alternative subject: Really? How hard is it to type?

I don't like it when I'm reading something and it makes me think. 

Well, to be clear, I don't like it when I'm reading something and it makes me have to think about what the author is saying.

Wait.  Still not right.

I don't like it when I am reading something and I have to have the urban dictionary or a glossary or a texting acronym book to figure out WHAT the author is LITERALLY writing. 

I don't mind thinking ABOUT what the author is writing about, but I'd like to easily understand what that is by reading words I understand rather than try and decode their missives.

I deliberately chose NOT to become a decoder for the CIA. 

(Well, no, I didn't choose that.  Suggesting I "chose" it presumes that I had an opportunity to do so, and we'll never know about that... BUT, I'm sure if I CHOSE to be a CIA decoder, they would have made me an offer. Right? Right.)

I was reading a blog last night, and the blogger wrote about how she and her DH went and did something.  Now I don't know about you, but I don't know that many women who walk around with a designated hitter.  Because that's where MY mind goes to when I see the words "DH". 

Now, last night, I admit, I wasn't that confused.  It wasn't the first time that I'd seen "DH" or other derivations "XDH, DGF, XDGF", etc.  But it is still a new enough term for me that it interrupts my reading experience as I try to understand what it is that she wrote. 

So this morning, as I'm lathering up, I am wondering just how hard it is to type the words "dear husband".  Is it really so hard? 

Now I do have some understanding that we live in a world that limits our characters - texts, tweets, and at one time FB, and so we have to find ways to abbreviate.  And I know that abbreviations are NOT a new thing.  I can imagine, for example, (i.e., eg:) that the first folks who saw "etc" had to take a moment to think "Oh, etcetera!" 

Now, I admit that I feel when I write something like this that I must have become a curmudgeon when I wasn't looking.  I had to look twice in the mirror after I stepped out of the shower to confirm I am not a curmudgeon.  (I don't think I look like one?)

I am sophisticated enough to understand LOL, LMAO, etc. 

But I do find myself sometimes reading TFLN and having to reference the urban dictionary to understand it.  I still enjoy it.  But I feel old when I don't get it right away.

Part of the problem is that I am a skilled typer.  It takes me LONGER to reduce and abbreviate and think about the abbreviation than it does for me to type the full expression.  I have been typing for 75% of my life and began typing on a real typewriter.  I type faster than the average bear.  (Okay, well, that image probably doesn't help you understand how fast I type... since I don't think Yogi really does have the dexterity to type very quickly or very well)

And I am tech-savvy.  I have owned Blackberries, Palm Pilots, and iPhones.  I can type on those keyboards fairly quickly, too. 

I have had friends get frustrated in chatting with me online because they feel like they can't get a word in edge-wise.  By the time they finish writing "Yes, I did" I've moved on three or four more topics.  And then I don't know what their "Yes, I did" referred to, and I've really messed up the conversation. 

No wonder they abbreviate.