19yo argentinian cis guy
Things i like range from art, to software, to DIY electronics, and whatever current project im having
The way English speakers (English as their first language) abbreviate whole expressions into acronyms makes the internet miserable for those who don't have English as their first language.
Examples: imo, iirc, tl;dr, asap, fyi, brb, etc...
Like, how the fuck should I casually comprehend any of this????
i can see how that would be frustrating, but at the same time, is it so different from seeing a new word?
No, but it's kinda frustrating when you go search for the meaning of "imo" just to realize it's 3 words you already knew in the first place.
Now multiple that by 5 plus all the times I forgot the meaning of one of those acronyms.
My partner is french, and one of their biggest gripes about English speakers is how much we abbriviate things, so this tracks. I hadn't noticed how much I do it until they pointed it out.
I try to not blame anyone for this exactly because of how much common it seems to be for English speakers.
If it's any consolation, with me being here rather than where I came from, I can finally afford to lay things out in more explicit terms, and expand out a lot of acronyms.
That said, if you see me regressing into a-hundred-one shorthands, don't be afraid to tell me to type properly.
Not sure if this makes it any better, but growing up with internet culture as a neurodivergent kid (and native English speaker) I found these types of abbreviations frustrating as well and I often had to look them up or ask people what they meant. I often tried to guess what they were abbreviating and my guesses were often wrong.
Now I use some of them myself, but usually only in chatrooms with close friends who I know already know them.
When i see "fwiw" i only hear some weird cartoonish whistling noise in my head (character grabbed outta stage with a huge cane, fwiw! ).
And cannot remember what the hell it stands for.
