tl;dr

For those of you that missed the last 10 years of changing technology including sms messages, twitter, facebook and internet message boards, tl;dr stands for "too long; didn't read" it's a abbreviation common to message boards along with the likes of "lol" (laugh out loud) "rofl" (roll on the floor laughing) and occasionally "u'r" (you're).

These little gems, along with various other abbreviations make me want to do bodily harm to society in general, and social media in particular.

Back to tl;dr.

I've seen this as a response to posts that are no more than 4 or 5 paragraphs long. Something that 5-10 years ago would have been a normal starter post for an online conversation is now considered an essay that people don't want to bother with. Are we, as a society, so lazy that we can not longer read through 200 words to be able to have a virtual conversation? And worse, are we so inconsiderate of peoples feelings that not only will we not read the information put before us, but we'll announce that we can't be bothered reading it?

I will happily admit that I'm constantly optimistic about the way people approach the internet. I'm part of only one online message board, and for the most part, I think it's a more intelligent group of people than you'll find in other places on the net. This results in me having a fairly high expectation of people. Add to that I'm pretty smart, and I surround myself with pretty smart people, it makes me even more disappointed when society at large demonstrates it's gross stupidity and casual rudeness.

In real life, would you respond to your boss that the email was too long and you couldn't be bothered reading it? Would you tell your doctor to tweet the advice in 140 characters? Would you, with casual abandon, rudely announce that someone's hard work is a waste of time because it's 5 paragraphs longer than you want to read right now?

Of course you wouldn't. You'd read the email, you'd read the 5 pages of advice your doctor gave you because it might save your life, and it's doubtful that you're going to say to someone's face "I can't be bothered with you".

So why do we feel free to be aggressive, abusive, and flat out rude on the internet?

Because of the anonymity, of course. Because you don't have to be yourself and who the hell is going to know better? I could be a 60 year old man from China posing as a 32 year old Australian woman. You have no way of knowing any different. And that anonymity allows me, or you, the ability to be rude, dismissive, lazy, and annoying without any consequences.

Because it's just the internet, it's just words on a screen, you can walk away any time, don't take it so personally.

Except, in this day and age of kids killing themselves because of being bullied online, and legislation being developed around cyber bullying, are we really able to say "it's just the internet"?

Sorry, that was an unexpected tangent.

Back to the laziness. What's to blame? Social media? Sms? Are people becoming so accustomed to communicating in 140 characters because of sms and twitter that we can no longer read anything longer than a paragraph? Or type in complete sentences?

And what does that mean for the future? Are we going to start teaching kids abbreviated words because they're too lazy to learn proper spelling? Kids are handing in assignments written like a facebook post, full of abbreviations and non existent grammar. I get emails in txt spk from people that have been working for the government for 10+ years, simply because they too are too lazy to type out a complete sentence.

Why are we so lazy?

I ask, having not going to the gym in weeks, hours after driving to the shops a 5 minute walk across the road.

Is it because we have so much technology that we feel pressured to be constantly responding to things, but don't feel like we have the time to do it? Are we too connected to the world?

I have too many questions, and no real answers, and at the end of the day this post is far too long, and nobody will read it.

Things to think about.