If you've been joining in chat room conversations, or trading e-mail with net pals , you have become one of the millions who write in a special, short form of English. Throughout the world, every night children and their elders are "talking" online -- many of them are talking at the same time. It's fast: trying talking to six people once. It's convenient: three or four words per exchange. It takes cleverness, concentration and quick fingers. And it requires very simple language. There's neither time nor space for explanations. Why waste valuable time telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB (="be" right back) will do? Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI (="pardon" me for jumping in). Interested in whom you're talking to? Type A/S/L, the common request to know your pal's age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a reply from your pal. If something makes you laugh, say you're OTF (="on" the floor), or LOL (="laughing" out loud), or join the two into ROTFL (="rolling" on the floor laughing). And when it's time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG (="got" to go) or TTYL (="talk" to you later). People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing feeling, as it takes more time to hold down the "shift" key and use capitals. Punctuation is going too. When people are online, they talk by   _  .
using body language drawing some strange pictures making phone calls making use of a special short form of English