Despite technology constantly upgrading itself and producing high tech cell phones, ipods, dvr, and blue rays, it’s also ruining the English language and the art of communication.  We are becoming so lazy thanks to abbreviations used in chatting and texting.  For instance…

IDK BBF AFK LOL  ROFLMAO

We don’t talk like this, so why do we write like this?  How many times have you laughed at a joke someone told you, and instead of actually laughing you just said, “Roflmao, dude!”

I work in customer service and have learned that apparently they don’t teach kids how to capitalize proper nouns (including their own name) these days.  It’s evident in emails from customers and in shipping addresses provided on orders we fulfill.  Here’s an example…

ima idiot
123 dumbass st. ne
toledo, oh 69241

Not a single word capitalized!!  OMG! WTF?

Here’s an example of at least a dozen emails I answer a day…

“wheres my book did u ship it I have test on Fri. + need book 2 study..can u please reply w/ info, thx.”

No punctuation.

Wrong use of words.

Abbreviations.

No capitalization.

And I work in the medical field.  These are the nurses and doctors of tomorrow I’m helping!  And they can’t even spell.

So this leads to the idea that apparently when spelling things over the phone you have to give a word instead of the letter.  Don’t get me wrong…the occasional “B as in Boy” is okay.  That’s pretty universal by now although I have no idea who came up with that and decided Boy was the word we’d all use.  Did I miss this day in English class?  Is there an alphabet of words I was supposed to learn to communicate and spell over the phone.

“Can I get your last name for our records?”

“Quincy.”

“Can you spell that for me?”

“Quincy-Unique-Ice Cream-No-California-Yellow.”

“Do you put an Ice Cream-Elephant on the end?”

“No, just Yellow.”

“Okay, thanks.  The reason I asked is because I’ve seen it spelled Ice Cream-Elephant, or just Ice Cream on the end.  I’ve Yellow too but just wanted to make sure I knew which way you spelled it.”

OMG!  WTF?

So who decided we should say A as in Apple, B as in Boy, C as in Cat or Charlie?  Did you mean C as in cardiac catheterization?  R as in Robert or R as in Reticuloendotheliosis?

S as in supercalifriagilisticexpialidocious!

Wake up America and stop acting like idiots!  Learn the freaking language!  Capitalize your damn name!  IT’S CALL A SHIFT KEY!  Embrace it!  Embraaaaaaace it!