Sunday, 3 December 2017
The humble SMS is 25 years old today. Even though it’s still absolutely relevant, its popularity has ebbed as a consequence of messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger. It’s worth reflecting on how fundamentally transformative SMS was on language. Although texting wasn’t necessarily the origin of acronyms like LOL, G2G, and WTF, which were borne from services and technologies as diverse as USENET and TELEX, it certainly popularized them, thrusting them into our everyday lexicon. And as is the case with language, these acronyms have themselves shifted in meaning, and become broader. Instead of writing long phrases and…
This story continues at The Next Web
