When I was young, I used to cringe when adults made clumsy, if well-intentioned, attempts to speak in what they thought was “youthful slang” in order to make a connection with us.
Now that I’m one of those adults, I can’t tell for sure whether the message in this poster (which I saw in the Toronto subway yesterday) comes across to today’s net/text-speaking youth as clever or clumsy. I’m torn – should my reaction be LOL or WTF?
(And is it me, or does the expression on the guy’s face say BRB?)
This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
3 replies on “Talking to the Kids in Their Language”
[…] This article also appears in Global Nerdy. […]
A little bit of both LOL and WTF, I think. Speaking of which, TYA, PCAE and DL are never used (at least, as far as I know), and I grew up with the generation that first started using MSN/AIM and other IM programs.
DL is the only appropriate acronym there. Down lo, dl, fairly common usage pre-instant messaging as well. Usually criminally ;)