Increased use of acronyms worries online boyfriend
"We used to have great conversations," Phillip Mudley reflects, " we'd talk about
almost anything. The environment, world peace, the crisis in the Middle East, and every once
in a while when I'd say something funny she would respond "LOL" you know? Laughing out loud.
Now it seems to be all she says." Phillip and Mary met 4 months ago when Phillip randomly
messaged mary's ICQ account Sexy4U on a whim one night at work. "I work a lot of nights so
things get slow for me, sometimes I just need someone to talk to and her name looked kind of
cute so I went for it. Pretty soon we were talking just about every night." Phillip noticed
a change in Mary about 3 weeks ago.
"It seemed like no matter what I said she would give me the LOL. For example, I messaged her
about the latest bombing in Israel and she just LOL'd at me, I mean, I almost hope she
didn't read what I said. Who laughs out loud at something like that?? Maybe she's
Palestininan.." Concerned and upset, Phillip spent several painful hours Saturday night
going through the chat logs for his conversations with mary.
"The stats don't lie," Phillip whispered, "78% less talking over the course of 5 days with a
66% jump in LOL's and a 34% jump in ROFL's. ROFL's are pretty rare you know, not just
anything makes you Roll on the FLoor Laughing.. but Mary did it 8 times yesterday alone."
Taking his concerns to mary wasn't easy. "I asked her if she wanted to talk about why she
was so weird lately and she just gave me "brb" (Be Right back) except, she wasn't right back
you know? She was gone for 5 hours. I really think she was just avoiding me."
"And it's been even worse ever since ICQ added all those damned smileys. God, if I ever see
that smiley with the big teeth one more time I think I'll snap." Phillip provided a sample
of a chat log to illustrate his point, noting that this was as recent as last week."
Deathkilla: Hey you there?
Sexy4U: lo
Deathkilla: What's up??
Sexy4U: LOL nothin...
Deathkilla: LOL? whats so funny?? And why the dots?
Sexy4U: I dont know.. lol
Deathkilla: so what are you doin tonight?
Sexy4U: Just watchin TV... ROFL :) :) :D
Deathkilla: Are you alright? You're being a bit weird....
Sexy4U: BRB!!!!
"She never came back.." Phillip said as he shut down the screen. She's been set to N/A (not
available) ever since then. But why log in if you're always N/A?? It just doesn't make
sense. I really think this is over. I don't know what I did wrong."
Before leaving Phillip mentioned that he was seriously thinking of curtailing possible
future ICQ romances. "It's just too hard to know what the other person is thinking. And
those damned smiley's. God I hate them." Phillip thought he would do something to let her
know how he felt. "Maybe I'll change my username, Brokenheartkilla maybe. I'll never message
a strange girl again." Phillip then wept profusely into his Slipknot t-shirt.