Textspeak is destroying the language. Some of the abbreviations are overused and have become meaningless. This seems to make communication pointless, shallow, mundane and flat. And this makes people become lazy about the proper use of the language. Also, it is scary when we look at teenagers and kids who are exposed to textspeak from early ages and start having problems with proper language.
Another point is that more and more people use textspeak abbreviations in real life communication. Saying “LOL” instead of actually laughing is ridiculous. Have sincerity and real expression of emotions been lost? If this does not change we might become ‘textspeak zombies’ soon.
Brief
We want to make people see how limiting the textspeak is. We will try to express that in a series of posters encouraging people to use their actual language and a palette of words instead of just shouting “LOL” or “OMG”. We want to suggest that it can be a good idea to stop LOL-ing and start articulating emotions in a more human way.
Outcome
A series of four posters on four selected abbreviations: LOL, OMG, BTW and IMO. Each one of these contains a selection of words to use instead of textspeak. By leaving a blank space in the shape of textspeak words we want to highlight that when we take them out of the language, there are plenty of more interesting and suitable words and phrases left around.
The posters are silk-screen printed and letter pressed to show the beauty of pure and ‘analogue’ language (as opposed to digital). Textspeak abbreviations are kept in digital/pixel style font and all the words around are made of wood type fonts and therefore look more traditional. Our lives are becoming digital yet traditional ways seem to always work well and appear more human.
Posters are folded into booklets and put together in a package to create a complete unit. Booklet format makes the form of posters more practical. It is easier to use them when they all fit into A5 ‘envelope’.
