I <3 emoticons. The little textual facial expressions are perfect in a time when most of our communication is via text or e-mail messages. They help provide context and emotion to words that may otherwise be misinterpreted. A comment looks a lot less sinister when it’s followed with a 🙂
I also see the benefit of abbreviated language, although I don’t use it frequently. BTW, I was interviewed for a broadcast pacakage where I disagreed that using “text” language makes people worse writers. My official stance has developed into one’s need to understand the correct language in order to use an abbreviated version.
My personal favorite is the LOL. I know it maybe out of style, but LOL is the abbreviated text version of 🙂 For a person like me with a sarcastic sense of humor, these three letters probably keep a lot of people from being angry with me.
My new concern is not that these abbreviations are making younger people somehow unable to write. I no longer find this true, although, in the name of transparency, I should say that I one time was concerned about this.
My new worry is that young people don’t think about when it’s appropriate to use this abbreviated language.
A professor friend told a story just this week about receiving an e-mail including a student excuse and “FML.” This, obviously, is not appropriate.
I also recently received an e-mail from a journalism senior that included this type of abbreviated communication. I ignored the first case, although I thought it was highly inappropriate, and responded to the student’s concern. The next e-mail was practically incoherent because it contained so many of these abbreviations. I felt like I need a codebook to read it. I was offended. I hit delete. Perhaps even more important, I adopted a policy that I hope you will consider as well.
Judge if you must, but I no longer will respond in any positive, active way to official student communication that includes emoticons or abbreviated language. Quite simply, if a student wants to ask a question of their faculty, adviser, mentor, boss, professional reference, etc., they should use professional language – no matter how informal the communication method might be. Using informal language in these types of communications sends a message, and it’s not positive.
