LOL

Remember my depressing technology class? Today, we spent an hour and fifteen minutes talking about instant messaging, and whether or not knowing what imho and brb mean is important if you're a "good" instant messager (messanger?).

I didn't talk much (I've got a cold and sound like a seasoned smoker), but if I had I probably would have mentioned that while I do understand the standard internet acronyms*, I really only use one or two of them. In fact, one of my BIGGEST pet peeves (behind personalized license plates and the misspelling of y'all) is when people spell things like "you" as "u" and "before" as "b4." It will not kill you to type a few extra letters! Do not slaughter your language like that! Acronyms, for some reason, do not bother me so much. Perhaps because they have less to do with spelling. I'm big on the spelling. Get it?

I also would have told some anecdote featuring the use of AIM, like that time my freshman year when Christina tried to convince me that the guy I liked had the screenname WisteriaCrayon025. Riiight. Like any self-respecting 21-year-old, heterosexual male is going to have the word wisteria in his screenname. Or the word crayon, for that matter.

But mostly, I would have liked to tell the story of one of the first times I talked to my mom through instant messages, right after I'd left for college. It was a whole new experience for her, but the best part was when she wrote something funny and I replied with "LOL." A lot of confusion ensued, because in the 70's? LOL meant Lots Of Love.

Not that I didn't mean to imply lots of love, because I totally did. In between all the laughing. Out loud.

*This list is totally crazy and if you ever use an acronym that is nearly as long as what it stands for, I will not be your friend. Riddle me this: Why would I type YWHOL (Yelling Woo Hoo Out Loud) instead of just typing, "WOOHOO!!!"? Why? It makes no sense.