Do you find it condescending when someone says, "Good girl?"

I'll take my chances wrestling the gorilla.

Remember...I've seen you in action!

I will never get the thought of the danger that poor cop was in completely out of my mind.

If you don't speak, act and write like a girl, there's less chance you'll be called one.

Like all this lol crap. Whenever I see that after a everyday statement like "I'll be 20 on 2/22" I think "What the hell is she laughing at?

If you were actually speaking and did lol after saying whatever, you'd come across as a giddy twit.

So, are you acting like a girl, or a woman?

Can you bring home the bacon?
Frying it up in a pan?
And never let him forget he's a man?
Are you a W-O-M-A-N (say it again)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4MwbVf5OA
also babe, the "gross" about having a man in your bedroom. Either you're a lesbian or a girl if you think that.

First of all, I just wanna tell you I'm straight. Nothing gross about having a man in ur bedroom. Just not appropriate to be writing that on the internet. Comprende?

Most gen Y ppl also write lol w/o even laughing, some even at the end of every sentence. As for acting like a girl or woman, can't I be both?

I don't bring home the bacon anymore bc I just got canned. I just put it in the frying pan cuz I still have to do domestic chores. And as for letting him 4gt he's a man, that depends. I'm not gonna screw w/ some sexist who think he could do what he wants to me just cuz he's male. Not that I could keep relationships anyhow bc they always break the hell up after a big fight.

Now "what the hell am I laughing at?" The fact that my generation chatspeak native and the older generation is chat speak immigrant. LMFAO!!

This last post of yours is probably the most cogent, well developed, and well-articulated post you have ever made on A2K, DD.

Keep 'em coming like that.

I totally agree with Frank. It's a mature, well-developed argument. It shows you can manage conflict when you slow down your brain and think things out. Now that's progress.

If they start coming up to you and saying things like "Sit!", "Roll over!", or "Gimme yer paw!!" you should start to worry.

Yes, that was quite mature.

as far as writting about a man in your bedroom on the internet, that is pretty tame. No details were said. I don't think even a church lady could have been offended.

As far a "bringing home the bacon" did you watch the vid below it? That was a joke on an older song on a commercial....I was indicating that yes, you can be many things at the same time. You can be a domestic goddess, sex siren, and CEO. However, if you want to be treated as a girl, you'll lol all over the place, regardless of if it's a fit place for it. If you want respect, and not being called a girl, you'll do more posting like the one above, sans the LMAO.

You can be a "chatspeak native" and still get respect, if you use your acronyms appropriately, rather than just tossing lol wherever there is an open space.

Since I'm an immigrant (albeit a smart one) what exactly is the purpose of all this lol'ing if you aren't saying something that's actually funny? Is it just a place holder, like saying "you know"? Is it just thrown in there once in a while to break up a sentence, like a period.

I have a strong feeling all the lol's are going to fall by the wayside as people between the ages of 14 to 19 start to mature. In fact, that will be one of the signs of maturity occuring.

Can you really see someone who is 16 right now typing a message to their boss in 10 years, using all these lol's?

"Ed, just finished the Burnhauser analysis lol. I find that their ROIC has been strong over the last 7 years, average between 10% and 16% per annum lol. However, I have some concern over their free cash flow LMAO. Let me know how you want me to proceed. bff Diane."

Anyway, I notice it doesn't seem to bother anyone else here, but that doesn't mean I don't have a valid point.

I still stand by the notion if you want to be treated with more respect, tone down the girl stuff. You're sending mixed messages, like you want to be treated like a girl, if you communicate like one.

And yes, it's fine to be called a girl when in a bedroom with a man. That's called behind closed doors.

lol usually ends a sentance like a period.

btw. here's something funny since i was only 19 and a half when i wrote this note to my dept mgr.

"sry it [ladies wear] looks like crap. They made me door greet 4 two and a half hours. tnx 4 understanding and ttyl."

She had my coworker read it to her cuz she was too old to understand text. I'm still laughing after all this time. But ur right. I wouldn't write that to my asst mgr or anyone above her.

u r a bimbo lol

Lol started to annoy me years ago.. five or six or more. I don't think I ever thought it was cute or useful. Too gooney.

A lot of people who use regular words do understand text messaging. Why would you think we wouldn't?

Oh, you think we wouldn't in order to make a division re understanding.

so it goes.

I consider LOL as short for 'please like me'.

You are using text stuff in a work place setting between yourself and a department manager?

How cute is that?

Because we're like all old and everything and couldn't possibly understand anything.

I think within the next decade dd12 is going to be amazed at how smart we old farts become.

Why, in just the last 5 or 6 months, she's gone from silly text messages to her manager to saying she would never do that to an assistant manager or up.

dd12 - greenwitch has a lot of patience with you, and for that I'm glad.

lol in place of a period? Facinating.

As a matter of fact I do know people who give a little "lol" whenever they pause in their speaking.

It's called "nervous laughter", and that's just what lol after every 2nd or third sentence looks like.

Anyway, the subject of the thread is if we think if we are called girls condescending. Well, I would if anyone called me one in a situation that wasn't me being with close friends, or kidding around. But in situations like business, or even random encounters with people, I don't get called that because I don't act that way. lol.

I think the secret is looking at your behavior now and how you're treated, then, acting another way and seeing how your treatment by others changes.

I think you will be amazed how much better people get at treating you with respect.

Surely nothing you've done

no, being called girl is ok, esp in my age group or younger. It's when someone says "good girl!" to you. THAT'S creepy.

ossobuco, I didn't say all older ppl don't understand text messeging. I'm just saying my dept mgr don't although I initially expected her to.

I find good girl to be creepy on every single level. I don't think anyone's said that to me since I was 6 and possibly earlier. I am 46, by the way (yes I know, BTW).

I also agree re all the LOL'ing. Personally I find it incredibly lame. But then again I make an effort to be WYSIWYG online (what you see is what you get). There are a thousand different ways to hide what you're really saying, and be subtle about things. But online communications are already like that, already fraught with mystery because it's so damned difficult to communicate tone.

I go with WYSIWYG and I tend to put on those glasses when I read email and 'net communications. Perhaps that's wrong but that's what I do. If you say LOL, I think you really are tittering, and it just strikes me as you're saying something and then undercutting that very same statement with nervous laughter.

Hence I suppose I take more or less the same position as Chai. I just find it inappropriate. And it's a straddle between childhood and adulthood. Be a grownup and type in complete sentences. You may not spell everything perfectly or use context correctly, and you may add some folksiness, but that's fine. But if you want to be a child, embrace chatspeak/textspeak outside of chat/text and subject everyone to incessant mindless abbreviating.

I say this as someone who chatted for years. I found no problem switching back to normal English in order to write and speak with people outside of the chatroom. You're an intelligent person. Surely you can see that chat belongs in a chatroom and not in business? Yes? I know you see it now but I am kinda curious as to how you didn't see it before. I mean, did your department manager speak in LOLs and BRBs? Something tells me, no.

Communication is a two-way street. If people are not understanding you, it's not necessarily something wrong with them.

That's me all right, fraught with mystery.

Just thinking...

I've known my best friend since we were something like 15 or 16 (I'm 50 now).

He has always had the most impressive vocabulary, and used it freely in everyday conversation. But, it was never like he was showing off. In todays context, he would would say he'd be damned if he was going to dumb himself down by spattering his speech and his writing with lol's. He'd see it as a lazy mans (womans) way of expressing himself. Yeah, to those who aren't in chat mode, it looks like you're incapable of expressing what you really want to say. Whenever I see liberal use of lol's I always get the impression the person is submitting to peer pressure (peer in this case meaning chatting in general) and is hesitant to show others how really intelligent they are.

It's just another way of being a sheep.

Every generation has its adolescent buzzwords. I can remember when young people peppered almost every sentence with the word, "cool", to the point where the word lost any cogent meaning.

Hopefully, at some point in our lives, we mature out of that stuff!

Phoenix, I'm sure you and I both remember when "crazy" didn't mean insane but was a kind of superlative for "cool." And "man" didn't necessarily have a male denotation at all. You could say, "Crazy, man," while speaking to a chick. All that meant was you totally agreed with whatever she'd just suggested. But we had no i-pods, Blackberries or even PCs. It was all verbal. Maybe that makes a difference.

I sure do remember that, M.A. Somewhere in the back of my mind I can remember a common expression of the times, "A cool and crazy guy".

Funny thing, what used to be referred to as "cool" now is "hot"!

I think that you may be right about the ipods, Blackberries and computers. Even if we "talked the talk", we would not think of writing that way, unless we were writing a composition about teenagers, and wanted to illustrate their means of expressing themselves.

I find that when appropriate, I will sometimes lapse into jargon, but it is usually to make a point, or to imbue my writing with a certain "flavor".