Coffee's hot, ur hot. Gimme a call."

That was the message written on the sleeve of a coffee cup and given to an old friend of mine, JoAnne, in San Francisco.

Now, I know almost nothing about the person who wrote that, but I do know two things. First, he's not blind, JoAnne is hot, but second, he shot himself in the foot with the "ur." JoAnne tweeted about it and even marked it with #styleguide.

There's been a backlash against the growing prevalence of Internet lingo, also called netspeak and something far more derogatory. The New York Times even ran an article about actor John Cusack's recent foray into the world of Tweets and the amount of grief he's received from the web's self-appointed grammar police. Apparently Cusack shares my belief in shotgun punctuation and free-style grammar.

But there is a difference between using Internet slang on the web, and using it IRL (trans: in real life). Most of us who have spent time online eventually begin to pick up the slang. I've been know to use "thx peeps," "rofl," and even "pwn'd some noobs" when chatting online. Facebook even allow you to select "733t" speak, a sort of alternative spelling/slang, as a person's primarily language on the site. (733t is the equivalent of ‘leet, short for elite).

Healthy development

I've even seen some emails in the office that use "thx" and "pls." It's a sign of a healthy community that can develop and use its own language to express itself, but there's a time and a place for everything and real world business communications are rarely either.

There have been a lot reports of people try to export netspeak into very inappropriate settings, such as one student in Scotland who wrote an entire school essay in Internet slang. I even knew one person who said "lol." Some people just don't know when to stop.

But at the same time, the ability to use netspeak shows a high level of creativity and even humour, and the virtual crucifixion of people who use this type of language — provided they keep it online — is a bit rich. Language, both online or offline, is an ever changing thing. You just have to listen to two people from different places, say Glasgow and Texas, both of whom technically speak "English." Try to have a conversation and you'll know what I mean.

Criticising people for using netspeak is also hypocritical because the number of other "lingos" that we accept as normal and appropriate, if still irritating.

Journalists throw around terms like straps, kickers and hammers (all types of headlines), but no one ever storms into a newsroom demanding that we speak "proper." Okay, they do, but it's usually because of the shotgun punctuation and free-style grammar that I was talking about earlier. Anyone who's travelled in business circles has certainly had to suffer around some jerk that can't resist using words like synergy, KPI (key performance indicators) and ROI (return on investment) in a sentence. Don't even get me started on financial and legal circles. The reason those professionals make so much money is because the jargon-filled language they speak is so inscrutable to others.

So let's be kind. Just because you don't approve or understand the world of online slang doesn't mean it's not a valid form of expression. However, the next time you hear someone actually say "lol" or try to pick up someone with a hand written "ur," feel free to pwn the noob.