There's this guy at work whose emails are peppered with all this IM/Texting jargon that I have no clue about.  It's so annoying because I have to either ask someone or look up on google what the heck something like "FWIW" means (for what it's worth).  I mean, it may be easier for the writer, but if you take it too far, the reader has to take time to decipher what the heck they're saying... somewhat passive aggressive, I think.

So here's my ROT (rule of thumb).  If 95% of the people out there would know what it would mean, and it has become a part of the common lexicon, by all means use it (e.g. ASAP, FYI, ETC...), but if it's something that looks lazy (e.g. u, ppl...) or is just bad grammar (e.g. ur, u2) or just too obscure (e.g. AAMOF, AFAIK, AMFIGTD...), then just leave it out.  (BTW, if you're looking for AMFIGTD anywhere you won't find it... I made it up.)

Maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing?  Maybe I'm just being a cranky old man who needs to get with the times?  You just wait... someday our emails are going to look like this:

IDK, IMHO I'm all for KISS, but WTF?  BION, there R PPL who don't know (W/O looking up an acronym FAQ) what these letters are AKA.  AAMOF, sometimes it's so FUBAR that U have to take a SWAG JIC U or your SO or BFF R not up on MB/IM lingo.  FYI, some PPL like to talk in RL FTF where WYSIWYG.  AFAIK, the reason Y UR writing is B/C U want to communicate ASAP and not 2 B a PITA... CMIIW.  BTAIM, B4 you just tell me to MYOB, look at it W/ the other's POV and correct your MSG SNAFU, K?  It's what NKOTB would do.

HTH, TY & TTYL

BTW... FWIW, I'm mostly J/K.  lawl.

You just watch...

How many of you were able to decipher the above without having to look any of the "words" up?

FYI, I'm going to put the translation in the comments section later