What is the deal with young women (teens/early 20s) and the way they type?

I love you for being as young as you are, and yet still having a problem with it.

Honestly, I just assume that they’re either stupid (perhaps stoned or with brain damage) or having sex – ooooooooohhhhhh yeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…..

Oh, oh oh!!! This has baffled me for so long. I just don’t understand it, at all, for exactly the reasons you said. I even questioned my 13 year old cousin about it. She didn’t have an explanation, imagine that.

Hahaha, yes I’ve noticed it and done it. To emphasize, you’re right. I notice the emphasis on the wrong letter, but usually their use of horrible spelling or grammar trumps all that!

Or maybe they have certain keys that are sticky on the keyboard, and don’t know how to clean it?

Also, in something like ‘long’ it changes the word if you multiply the vowel, I guess.

makes it less dull. If you’re typing something mundane, add a zillllllllion extra letters and viola! it still looks stupid.

@efritz Bahahahahaha.

Well, I was told it was young thang thing, and I wouldn’t understand. So I left it at that, because I remember telling my folks the same thing (40 years ago)

It’s not limited to girls but it seems to be a contagious bad habit. When I have to correspond with somebody (and about half are boys) who types this way, I pointedly use correct grammar and no txtspk at all but I don’t mention anything about it. After a few exchanges, they always tone it down and become intelligible.

It’s just a dumb fad.

@Blueroses you’re right, it is just a dumb fad.
This stuff makes me feel ancient. I find myself walking into stores or hopping on my Facebook and thinking that all of the “new” and “cool” stuff is really stupid.

Something to do? It’s the simple pleasures in life…

I couldn’t tell you, but I also loathe it. People think they’re being cute, I guess, but it just makes them look stupid.

Have you heard them talk? They draw out their words like that so often because they don’t really have a lot to say and they need to make it sound like more.

I think this just imitates that…but because they still have so little to right, they need to make it seem loooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Okay, at least it’s not just me. I purposely tried to choose examples where the letters that are doubled/tripled/multiplied by a million were either consonants or unvoiced vowels.

“Sameeeee” just looks like it ought to be pronounced “say-mee”. I don’t get it.

And you’re right, @DrasticDreamer – it makes them seem stupid. Argh!

On a side note, when my dad started to text, he began using textspeak. It was for practical reasons (he doesn’t have a smart phone). But I told him – “Dad, if you keep texting me like you’re a fifteen-year-old girl, I won’t be reading them.” ;-)

I really adore you for asking this question. This is something that really gets under my skin.

@iamthemob – I can forgive some “txtspk” when used in actual text messages. You’ve got a limited number of characters, and some people pay per text message. That’s fine. It’s the ridiculousness of putting in extra letters that don’t add anything at all to the pronunciation (I will use “soooo” sometimes, I admit) that gets me!

I’m 14. I hate this. I’ll say something like “I reeally want to talk to you!” Or “JENNYY!” Because it makes it look like you’re dragging out the word, but usually I don’t use more than one or two extra letters. That red squiggly line really makes me mad.

Haha, it’s terrible. It makes me cringe a little bit. Oh what does the future hold in store, eh? ;)

I’ve got no clue
I’m 20 and never type like that (with the exception of the “sooo” one, that’s it) i havee also noticcedd that thiss is a thingg with tha kidss. or typinq q instead of g. I hate it. I hate all text talk and “in crowd” talk.

See this occasionally, although not on Facebook as much since most of my friends are in college and don’t type like that.

One thing that baffles me is how girls sometimes use the ampersand. It seems they like to type it twice. E.g., ‘our song came on the radio && i thought of u ♫ luv u baby!! xox ♥’.

That and the use of little symbols (the hearts and music notes) suggest to me that the content of the message is either too plain (like @efritz said) or insincere. If you mean something then you shouldn’t need to augment it with that banal stuff.

(Don’t get me started on love vs loooooveeee vs luv vs ♥.)

@absalom – I’ve never seen the ampersand thing before. I’ll have to keep my eye out! And, sadly, the girls whose Facebooks I took the examples from are in university.

It looks like baby-talking to a chihuahua

I just add extra “o“s most of the time for emphasis if necessary.

I’m in the age region you specified and every time I see sometime typing like that I want to punch him/her. It just makes things so much harder to read and, sad to say, makes me respect the person a little bit less (because of it makes me think the person is stupid, as others have mentioned).

Wow. Judge much, people? Think about all the stupid shit you did when you were young and how much you didn’t care when adults criticized you. They do it because that’s what adolescents do.

Just tell them to get off your lawn.

My daughter’s 14. She’s my facebook friend. I see this stuff.

I see it as a form of bonding behavior. I’m not sure what girls do when they are physically together in a larger group, but think of the hugs and touches and whatever else they use to show friendship and being part of the group.

This is the same thing. Touching and hugging and hearting and emphasizing—it’s all about feelings and trying to find ways to express feelings that they don’t even really understand they are having. I mean, for them it’s new and exciting and overwhelming. How do you put that into words?

No, really? Can you do it? It’s hard for adults, too. It’s beyond most of us. I actually think it’s a clever solution to the problem. How to mimic grooming behavior when you are not physically together.

Does that make any sense? I just made it up this moment. Please lurrrvvvvvve me, Ok? <3<3<3

and another thing: why does this stuff come in threes so often? xoxox

Surrre. I’m happppy to do ittttt!!!!!!

GA @wundayatta I read a behavioral science article years ago that said the human brain can recognize a group of 3 objects without computing, but no higher number. So 5 is recognized as 3 and 2 more, even though the computation is quick. I thought it was fascinating.

@wundayatta GA I want to point out, though, that 14 is much different than being in your 20’s. At least it should be, right?

It’s facebook wtf did you expect Shakespeare!?! There is no “deal” just younglings doing what they do.

@ucme – I don’t expect Shakespeare, personally.

I do expect English, though. ;-)

@DrasticDreamer Maybe the difference isn’t so much as it used to be? Kids grow up faster, but maybe are staying adolescent longer—perhaps because more are staying in a protected environment (college) for a longer time?

@iamthemob Excellent, i’m really pleased for you. Although utterly unmoved by this piece of personal information ;¬}

@Wundayatta, I also GA those answers. What bothers me is a friend. She’s 40, but ALL of her email and texts are done in text speech. I can’t help but
think she makes much of it up as she goes along, such as capitalizing often. Many of the other members of our church
express frustration often- many
are over 50 and they have no
clue what she means. I think
that it is great except when you are talking in more formal arenas.