If you use cutesy words such as nom (i.e. “I had a cupcake for breakfast.
Nom!” ), laughing emojis and acronyms such as LOL, you are going to hate this column. I’ve wanted to write this for ages, but never did because I’d offend so many family members, friends, and professional acquaintances. Plus, quite frankly, I was hoping common sense would kick in at some point, killing off the use of symbols and baby talk to communicate.
But evolution doesn’t work fast enough, and enough is enough. Emojis have become signs of devolution of the English language. Credit: Istock Then again, there’s nothing new about self-indulgent writing.
A century ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald said using exclamation points was like laughing at your own jokes – and you can only imagine what he’d think of the laughing emoji. Or LOL.
Like a comedian insisting on a drum roll after every punchline, we no longer quest for subtlety or thought. We just make bad jokes and then start laughing at them afterwards. Then, when LOL lost its shine, some bright spark came up with ROFL (roll on the floor laughing).
If you ever wonder whether to write something, always think: would I actually say or do this out loud? If, after making a joke in person, you’d actually throw yourself onto the ground and roll around while laughing, then go for it. If not ..
. I suggest holding back on the ROFL. Loading My issue isn’t just with how cringeworthy this is – it’s with how unnecessary.
You see, when it comes to com.