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In the old old days

B4 there were mobile fones

How cud a boy eva meet

A person of the oppsite gender

& even if they cud get acquainted

Wivout a mobile fone

How cud they ch@

Each uvver up16

A sample IM might say “AFAICT YIM is NBD but it left me ROFL with TMI BTW Im near a POP so GBFN ILU.” Translation: “As far as I can tell, your instant message is no big deal, but it left me rolling on the floor laughing with too much info. By the way, I’m near a parent on the prowl, so goodbye for now. I love you.” The obvious response: “ILU2.”

Some of the better-known acronyms, abbreviations, and shorteners are going oral. It is increasingly common to hear even a geezer respond to a joke by spelling out the letters L-O-L or O-M-G, while younger people often combine the first acronym into one word, which is now creeping into some dictionaries and books.

THE SCANDAL DIVERSION

With computerized communication becoming so intimate, it is only natural that it might sometimes become a personal embarrassment. After the news about Tiger Woods’ auto accident in 2009, rumors of his extramarital exploits began to leak out via voice messages. Soon there were at least twelve women claiming to have privately entertained the much-admired golf star. He eventually admitted getting off course.

Less than a year afterward, the cell phone network went viral again when another big sports star, Brett Favre, the off-and-on-again quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, sent nude photographs of himself by phone to a beauty queen also employed by the Vikings. The transmissions that were leaked to the media didn’t end his career, but they came close. The two celebrated cases hinted at what many less prominent people may be doing with their own phones for kicks.

MERCHANTS ON MOBILES

It is inevitable that wherever there is an efficient communications system, there will be advertisers and promoters to take advantage of it. And as long as there is a possible sale, there will be someone to help facilitate it.

One major facilitator is MotionPoint Corporation. It claims that it can provide websites covering as much as 83 percent of the 2 billion phones connected to the Internet. It lists the top ten international languages in order starting with English, followed by Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Russian, and Korean.

As a result, customers of Papa John’s, for example, can place their order by mobile phone all over the world. So if you are flying to Bahrain and you need a pizza when you arrive, you can call ahead and have your order placed in Arabic—or English. MotionPoint is expanding its Spanish mobile service to other industries such as health care, insurance, and banking. For a company like Best Buy, the global approach includes text messaging, microsites, and apps in Spanish.17

THE ULTIMATE TRANSLATOR?

If you are a tourist in a foreign country, you can throw away your tourist guide and pocket dictionary. That’s what the ads might soon say about free and low-priced apps for smart phones that automatically translate nearly two dozen languages.

All you need to do is speak into the phone, and your words will be instantly turned into the language of your choice on the screen, which you can then show to the person with whom you are speaking. Other apps can actually speak foreign languages by turning your own words into the language of your choice.

But there are a few bugs that might be expected with such new technology. One is that the translation can be too rapid for comprehension. Another is that the first two pioneer phones, Android and iPhone, require a network connection, which can lead to some big charges. Then, of course, there is the big chance that the meaning will not be clear.

There are similar programs for personal computers. Google is trying to develop a technology that will work as an instant oral translator. But there is no way that any of these devices can achieve perfection because of the subtle differences in meaning that can occur in all languages.