Idk wth is happening rn w abbreviations.

Gen Z loves efficiency. We need videos and songs to get to the point quickly and concisely (the average musical intro for a song is eight seconds in 2026 compared to 23 seconds in 1986). However, what Gen Z gains in a few seconds of efficiency might cause them to lose something else. There's one thing that so completely embodies this trade-off between gaining time and losing nuance: Take the reactionary abbreviation.

Idgaf, roflmao, smh, omg, wth, ffs, lol. This is not gibberish! This is English, condensed and made Gen Z. It's completely OK to need the translation: (I don't give a f***, rolling on the floor laughing my a** off, shaking my head, oh my god, what the hell, for f***'s sake, laugh out loud). What all these abbreviations have in common is not just that they are made of strings of letters and look like the cat walked across the keyboard, but these three key things: They are short, completely reactionary, and widely used. These three characteristics explain the trade-offs that teens unknowingly make by just sending three little letters.

Abbreviations are short and few.

There are a couple dozen commonly used abbreviations. A couple dozen. This lack of vocabulary literally limits the means of expression, and therefore the capacity to express nuanced emotions. For a bit of a dramatic comparison, in George Orwell's 1984, citizens are forced to use "newspeak," a language so simple and limiting that it slowly erodes their capacity to think complex thoughts and express complex emotions. By losing vocabulary, teens are not only losing the ability to express their emotions, but also to sit with the emotions, to identify them or understand them fully—and this can lead to confusion or harm online.

Abbreviations are completely reactionary.

Sure, there are tons of basic abbreviations like idk (I don't know) or ttyl (talk to you later), but these shorthands are proportional to the idea they are conveying. Messages that are simple and short should be proportionally short in the time it takes to type them. On the other hand, reactionary abbreviations, such as the ones listed in paragraph two, boil complex emotions down into a four-letter result. The specificity and the nuance of the emotion is lost. Or it's never there to begin with, as one jumps from receiving a visual straight to sending a reaction, bypassing the vital middle step of reflective processing. Common Sense Media's digital citizenship lessons are super aware of this, encouraging kids to pause and think before hitting send. But it's so easy to just type three letters. Constant shallow reactions makes deep reflection boring and hard.

The same abbreviations are widely used.

Obviously, for an abbreviation to work, it is necessary that everyone knows what it means. That means the same few reactions are used in millions of situations. So does that mean everyone feels the same range of emotions? How can millions of unique reactions all be expressed by a few dozen letter groups? Nuance is in the context, really, because it does require a lot of context clues to understand the meaning behind the abbreviation. Clearly, the expression itself is not nuanced or unique. But reading into the abbreviation might be quite a nuanced task.

Overall, having only a few short reactionary options limits one's ability to process emotions and find better expressions for unique and specific emotions. Perhaps with these abbreviations, Gen Z is processing less, but reacting more. Or maybe Gen Z is communicating more by typing less. Or both. Tbh idk.