Abbreviations

"TTYL MY BFF Jill."
"STFU IDLU."
"ILU KK TTYT."
"FTLOG."
"TTYTT."

Do you know what I just said? Me neither. Well, I actually do because I'm the one who wrote it but me neither.
I was with my friend today and her name is Valerie. When she left the room this is what she said: "I'll BRB."
Now, everyone knows that she is reassuring me that she will be right back. But in response to this, everyone in the room freaked out. I sat in a midst of yelling and over-loud correction that left poor Valerie's ear drums split and a scarring experience that will definitely make sure she won't use the expression "BRB" again.

But after this very loud experience I realized with some horror that every single one of my friends and I have used heinous (hee-nee-us) expression such as this one, and also ones like BFF and STFU, or WTF and OMG. TBH is a common one, as well.

Usage of these abbreviations are minorly acceptable in MSN and social networking sites, but in regular conversation it's as unacceptable as not attending the local film festival or making jokes about Barack Obama (SWPL).

There's a trap though. We touched on how using these abbreviations are "minorly acceptable". If used in online conversations you will be looked down upon subconciously. But also, if using perfectly correct grammar, you will also be looked down upon.

The perfect combination is to use obscure abbreviations and perfect grammar for everything else. Example: "Yeah, so I was like, FTLOG, I can't believe he did that."