L is for LMK ~ by Michelle Strutzenberger

How much do you pepper your social media posts and text messages with emojis and acronyms such as LOL and LMK?

Do you believe a day will come when such symbols and text forms will slither into other types of writing? Will longer-form, less transient pieces, such as academic papers, news articles, blogs, and books one day be speckled with emojis and internet slang?

If that day does come, will it be a happy one for you? Or will it be as though a cloud has darkened the sun?

Love and Hate

I admit to having a love hate relationship with the use of emojis and acronyms in my text messages to family and friends.

Emojis, for me, equal simplified pictures. Pictures, as they say, can be worth a thousand words. So, I love scouring for just the right emoji to convey certain feelings.

On the other hand, I squirm at using acronyms. For me, they reek of sloppiness and border on emitting a lack of love for the people I care about. Acronyms such as NM or WU shout, “I’m too busy for you to even take the time to spell out a full word.”

This is the line of reasoning I’ve taken, though I understand it may not necessarily be fully logical and/or the rationale everyone ought to subscribe to.

Averse and Open

As for whether I think these forms will and should eventually dot our other written works, the jury is still out for me. I waffle between aversion and a desire to be open minded.

I recently gave in to temptation and inserted a tiny emoji in of my blogs. The smiley emoji seemed to fit the context of my article so perfectly that I just had to include it, but I also felt strangely ashamed for giving in. I couldn’t help feeling as though I’d let my writing standards slip just a bit with this concession.

On the other hand, however, I understand that living languages evolve. They always have. We no longer use many of the words that snaked through the works of, for instance, Geoffrey Chaucer, which sits on my shelf. Here’s just one of the sentences from his book, The Canterbury Tales: “My thinketh it acordaunt to resoun, to telle yow al the condicioun…” (p. F2).

So, while my first reaction is one of aversion, I am also not ready to completely shut the gates to these “new” forms of communication in our longer, less transient writings.

All this to say that I’m still not sure what I’ll do should I, some day in the future, open an academic journal and find it crawling with emojis and internet slang.

Will I shriek and slam the journal shut in horror, as if I’ve just made a discovery of a cockroach nest?

Or, will I widen my eyes in delight, as I welcome these “insects” like a new source of literary protein?

Your Thoughts?

BTW, what do you think?

Would you say NBD and IDC if emojis and internet slang someday sneak into all forms of writing?

Or, would you 😲?

What about the Bible? Should we have an emoji and acronym-filled translation of the Bible? You may be aware that one already exists. (To learn more, click this link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/30/emoji-bible-arrived-god-king-james).

LMK what you think 😊.

Michelle and her family enjoy hiking mountains and trails together. She is currently sharing a series called, What Growing Up in a Mennonite Family of 10 Taught Me About Survival.