# Story 3: Text Abbreviations Make You Seem Lazy and Fake

- **Episode:** [168](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/168.md) (2025-02-04)
- **Type:** news-roundup
- **Tags:** communication, text-abbreviations, professionalism
- **Time:** 12:17–19:59 (start 737s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/168?t=737](https://truthliesandwork.com/168?t=737)

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[12:17] Leanne Elliott: Text abbreviations make us look fake and lazy
[12:20] Al Elliott: LOL
[12:21] Leanne Elliott: That is— that's the headline that's going to grab my attention. Um, yeah, that's according to a new psychology study published by the Journal of Experimental Psychology. But before we get into that, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna look at text abbreviations and check out your knowledge, Al
[12:36] Al Elliott: Oh no
[12:36] Leanne Elliott: And before any listeners start thinking it's going to be another humiliation like our Gen Z interpreting what all the language means and we've got none of them right, let's not forget that Gen Xers like Al were pioneers of text abbreviations
[12:49] Al Elliott: Absolutely. BRB
[12:50] Leanne Elliott: They invented it. Because if you don't know, if you're not a Gen Xer or an older millennial, then in the dark ages of texting, when we talked about SMS, you had 160 characters and anything more than that cost you more money, a second message. So you had to get really, really clever in terms of abbreviating your text. It became an art, I think
[13:12] Al Elliott: It did
[13:13] Leanne Elliott: So yes, Al, I have full confidence You're gonna nail these. You ready?
[13:17] Al Elliott: I am
[13:17] Leanne Elliott: First one, TL;DR
[13:20] Al Elliott: Too long, didn't read
[13:21] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, basically
[13:22] Al Elliott: And well, actually, I think that that's not necessarily the polite way of getting to saying gets the point. That is like a summary that you put— it's come from Reddit, I'm pretty sure. And what the people will do, they're called OPs, original posters, and they will put a big long thing on and then at the bottom they put TL;DR, as in it was too long, you didn't read it, did you? Here's the summary. So TL;DR. So quite often I think nerds like me will say, oh look, just give me the TL;DR, because we're absolute nerds and, uh, and most of us are virgins. Sorry. Next one
[13:52] Leanne Elliott: Okay, if somebody replies IcyMi, what are they saying?
[13:57] Al Elliott: Um, IcyMi. I know this one. You do? If you can make it? No
[14:05] Leanne Elliott: In case you—
[14:07] Al Elliott: In case you No, I don't know it
[14:10] Leanne Elliott: In case you missed it
[14:11] Al Elliott: Oh no, it wasn't what I was thinking of
[14:12] Leanne Elliott: Oh no?
[14:13] Al Elliott: In case you missed it. No, I didn't know that
[14:15] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, so ICYMI, usually apparently attached to a link or an email somebody definitely sent already. Do you remember that? In case you missed it, for your attention again. Um, an easy one, uh, BRB
[14:27] Al Elliott: Be right back
[14:28] Leanne Elliott: Yep. And what about FWIW?
[14:31] Al Elliott: For what it's worth
[14:32] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, is that right? Yeah, it is. Gen X for the win. Just the one there. One
[14:36] Al Elliott: FTW. Gen X FTW for the win
[14:39] Leanne Elliott: Okay, let's get back to the psychology. Um, so a new study, um, has found that using these types of text abbreviations might actually be harming how people perceive us. So according to the research, as I said, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, reported by the British Psychological Society, so you know it's good, shortening words in texts like THX for thanks or HRU, how are you, makes you come across as less sincere. And even worse, could actually reduce the chances of getting a response. Further plot twist, most people don't think that this is the case. So the state— same study found that 80% of people assumed that abbreviations wouldn't make a difference, and some people even thought that it would make them more preferable. But after testing over 5,000 participants, the researchers found the opposite. So when people use a lot of abbreviations, they come across as less engaged, less genuine, And, well, actually just a bit lazy. So the study, which was led by David Fang at Stanford University, ran multiple experiments. In one, participants rated texters who use full words as being more sincere and making more effort than those who cut corners with abbreviations. Another experiment looked at Tinder messages— yes, real-world data— from nearly 700 users across 37 countries. This is an Excellent bit of research. Well done, Mr. Fang. Turns out that more abbreviations—
[16:04] Al Elliott: Really got his teeth into it, didn't he?
[16:06] Leanne Elliott: He really did. He really did. Um, it turns out that the more abbreviations somebody used, the shorter their conversations were. So if you're trying to get yourself a date for Friday night, don't use text abbreviations
[16:17] Al Elliott: Can I just ask about this? So when you say shorter, that means that they ended quicker, not necessarily that they were shorter because they used fewer words?
[16:23] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah. The, the, the Um, the exchange of messages was much shorter
[16:28] Al Elliott: They didn't get their bits wet
[16:29] Leanne Elliott: Didn't get the date, didn't get the date. And then in terms of the workplace—
[16:33] Al Elliott: I'm glad you talked over that
[16:34] Leanne Elliott: Where's this application? Um, so if abbreviations make us seem less engaged in casual chats, then in work communications— think about Slack or Teams or even emails— these quick-fire abbreviated messages make us seem less, less invested in our work relationships. Al's thought clean, please
[16:54] Al Elliott: Yes. Okay. Sorry. I'll keep it clean. Uh, yeah. Uh, I think it feels like a bit of disrespect if someone just does— like, have you ever done like a big long text to someone and then they just give you a thumbs up as a reply and you're like, hmm, very passive-aggressive. What the hell, man? Yeah. I've just spent like 25 minutes. Well, as a, as a, as an old person, 25 minutes writing this out. So I think that's a little bit, um, I think emojis have definitely got their place. One of my favorite at the moment is the saluting emoji, and I don't know who decided to cut it in half. But it is perfect. It just works perfectly. So I use that quite a lot. Uh, but no, I think, I think in a, in a, in any kind of communication, I mean, it depends obviously whether it's peer-to-peer, whether you're talking to a client, whether you're talking to your boss, a boss talking to someone who works for them. I think it's more acceptable in peer-to-peer, but even then it looks like you're just not giving it the, the time it possibly requires. Just a quick— I don't know, I'm split because I think if I was texting someone or I was on Slack, and then, um, I had a phone, you know, I had a meeting, I might go, got a meeting, BRB. I might put that down. And what you're— what the study is saying is I probably shouldn't. Um, I think—
[17:57] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[17:57] Al Elliott: There's the other part of it as well, is that potentially older people like me might be using those to try and look like they are still relevant and cool, when in actual fact, if we get it wrong— like, for example, my mum, I think it was, who thought LOL was lots of love, so she He sent some quite strange messages. Your, your auntie Lorna's died, LOL. Um, you know, so, so there is that, the option of getting it wrong, which is not great. Um, overall, I don't know. I want to say there's a time and a place, but you've just shown me some research that shows that actually there isn't
[18:30] Leanne Elliott: Well, there's always nuances, aren't there? And I think arguably the, the closer relationship you have with somebody, the more they're going to understand abbreviations. For example, if you, you have started sending me this Salute emoji, um, which did make me smile at first. So I think if you have a close relationship—
[18:45] Al Elliott: No, it's a bit tired. Stop
[18:48] Leanne Elliott: I worry I'm being bossy. You tend to send it when I ask you to do something
[18:51] Al Elliott: No, it's more of a like, will cope, will comply
[18:53] Leanne Elliott: Exactly, exactly. Um, well, I think what's interesting, I think, yeah, the, the depth and strength of relationship will, will make a difference, as it always does. But it does feed into kind of other research we've heard about as well, isn't it, in terms of The more effort you put into it, the more valuable it's seen by the person looking at it. There's been lots of research into that. So things like the open kitchens in restaurants, if people can see people making the food, they literally see the effort and they'll report that it tastes better and they enjoy the meal more and blah, blah, blah. So I think it's an extension of that, but it's interesting how regardless of the new technology that comes in, we're still flawed humans that will interpret behaviors in a similar way, whether it's using tech or not. So I think, yeah, it's, again, and it's going back to what I was saying in terms of our predictions. I think lots is changing at the minute in terms of tech, but ultimately it's really gonna emphasise how human we are and actually understanding those fundamentals is gonna separate the very best business owners from the rest
[19:54] Al Elliott: Lovely, lovely. Well, that concludes our news roundup. I thought that was a really good one, actually