Friday, August 2, 2013

The Long and the Short

For me it started when Sunny Delight started being called Sunny D. Someone, somewhere got the idea that a shorter name was somehow hip, cool, now. Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC, but then I thought that was because there was some question if it was really chicken or not. Dairy Queen became DQ. Dancing With the Stars became DWTS.

I suppose that everyone texting on their phones influenced things turning to initials, too. Actually one of my characters in the crochet series teaches college English and is constantly horrified as her students begin writing their papers with abbreviated words and initials. You becomes u, are becomes r, etc.

Recently the initial thing happened with my gym. Suddenly instead of saying Total Woman on the door, it now says TW.

I thought I had seen everything, but then a week or so ago, I was looking at an ad in the paper. I recognized the familiar looking happy looking kitten dressed in pink, but did a double take at her moniker. No more Hello Kitty, she had become HK.

It just isn’t the same. Hello Kitty sounds happy and what she looks like. HK sounds like she should be wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase with a hip disinterested stare.

I know you’re supposed to move with the times and I know everyone is in a hurry, but geez how long does it take to actually call things what they are?

What do you think about initials versus words?

8 comments:

Planner said...

LOL! :-)

Betty Hechtman said...

Very funny, Planner.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I'm now getting used to texting my younger son with "K" when I mean "okay."

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, my son does the K thing, too. It cracks me up. Like how hard is it to ad the O?

Anonymous said...

As a former English teacher who is in love with the language, I hate it.

Mimi C. said...

I have noticed that people do not know how to spell anymore. I attribute this to texting and initializing words. I'm afraid that our next generation won't be able to read books because they won't know how to recognize words.

How do u read a bk, idk. lol

Betty Hechtman said...

IIK10, and I bet nobody is using dictionaries much anymore. As for me, mine is always next to my computer. What I like most about using a dictionary is all the extra words you read about on the way to whatever you're looking up.

Betty Hechtman said...

Mimi C. I think the shortened words and initials only add to people's impatience. The only good point to LOL and emoticons is that it lets someone know that you are trying to be funny since there is no tone of voice in an email.