A recent series of studies looked into how we perceive common abbreviations used in text messages, like “k” and “lol” and “idk.” It found that messages laden with such shorthand are thought to be less sincere and less worthy of a reply.
This study included subjects ages 15 to 80, and checked a variety of abbreviations (including “plz” and “sry,” for “please” and “sorry”), to rule out the possibility that folks were responding to specific abbreviations, not abbreviations in general.
The researchers also checked to see if this was something that applied to just strangers or friends, family, and other loved ones, as well, and they discovered that it applies to both; subjects didn’t care for heavily abbreviated messages from strangers as they seemed not worth their attention, and they didn’t like the same from close relations because they seemed inauthentic and rushed.
To check and see if this might have been the result of lab effects—things that are true in lab settings but not in the real world—the researchers reached out to users on the social platform Discord about something unrelated, but some of them received messages laden with abbreviations, while others did not. Fewer people responded to the abbreviated message, which the researchers have interpreted as support for the hypothesis that these sorts of shorthand make messages feel more phoned-in and less important, and thus less deserving of attention or response.
Finally, they looked into how this might translate to the online dating world, and found that people who were incentivized to use more abbreviations in their messages during an online speed dating event received less glowing feedback from those with whom they chatted, the folks on the other end of those abbreviated messages proving a lot more reluctant to share their information due to the other person’s perceived laziness (and assumed disinterest).
While none of these findings are slam-dunks, proving that everyone, all the time will negatively respond to text abbreviations, it is an interesting collection of data points at a moment in which more of our communication has moved to our devices, more of it is text-based, and more of us are using AI tools of various sorts to make such communications more efficient.
Such AI tool use could influence these findings at some point, especially if more formal, too-perfect messages of the kind spat out by many of these tools become associated with lazy communication, while abbreviations may become associated with actual humans typing things, and thus, with time and attention being spent on the recipient.