Wtf Illustrations

A 2003 study of college students by Naomi Baron found that the use of initialisms, even in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and specifically in instant messaging, was actually lower than she had expected. The students "used few abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons". The spelling was "reasonably good" and contractions were "not ubiquitous". Out of 2,185 transmissions, there were 90 initialisms in total, only 31 CMC-style abbreviations, and 49 emoticons. Out of the 90 initialisms, 76 were occurrences of "lol".
Internet slang shortcuts save time for the writer but take twice as long for the reader to understand, according to a study by psychologist Nenagh Kemp at the University of Tasmania.