Twitter Lingo

Language is quite fascinating... It changes throughout time and phonemes and morphemes develop new relationships to means a totally different thing from one generation to the next.

I tried to get my mom to guess what some of the twitter lingo meant/stood for. This is what she got:

LOL: "Laughing Oh Laughing"
SMH: "Shit... Mother... Something"
FML: "I think 'F' stands for f-word?"
LMAO: "Laughing....My... Something something"

.... and this went on for a while....

My mother knows what twitter is and knows what facebook is too. She's well aware of this new lingo that has developed through social networking over time. Yet, she's not sure WHY this has to exist. I explained that on Twitter, you are limited to 140 characters per tweet. Then she started asking too many questions and so I gave up... But she brought up a good point... What if people replace actual words with these acronyms?

I guess as long as you don't actually use twitter lingo in real life regularly, you're okay?
I mean, I'm on Twitter and FB everyday, but I don't actually talk like, "And then the guy cut me off! Shaking my head" or "I lost my phone eff em elle" on a regular basis. I have said "oh em gee" a few times though. ... Uh oh...

It's interesting how "LOL" (Laughing Out Loud) has developed into LMAO, LMFAO (which I think is a little extreme, but... I admit I've used it) and so on. Others more specific to Twitter such as "TL" for Timeline or the hashtags are understood by everyone on Twitter (#NP- Now Playing).

In Toronto, so much is going on and Twitter accounts for businesses, event planners, entrepreneurs and organizations/corporations take the free tweeting to their advantage. Tweets can be "retweeted" and the chances of the link to your website or twitter page is doubled or tripled within seconds.
With Twitter, up and coming and often underrated Toronto artists can give it a go in the internet world and get their music out through Twitter. It's easy, fast and...viral!

What's next for acronyms or Twitter lingo? Think our tweets will be limited even more? Or expanded beyond 140 characters? It is a phenomenon and it is something that has helped develope many businesses. Even my blog for example, not that its a business, but marketing or promotion-wise, it has helped get the word out about my postings. I've created and maintained networking opportunities and so on. Twitter is definitely a plus if you're trying to see what is out there and networking online. But what do you think? Is Twitter Lingo too much?

What's next?