Dear Internet

[Akrion]

Thank AoL for that.

The origins of chatspeak goes even further back. L33t Sp34k had the same useful purpose it still has today. Their use in passwords. 3 being related to E, 5 to S, }{ to H, etc. all initially came from just making stronger passwords.

[Dhalin]

The origins of chatspeak goes even further back. L33t Sp34k had the same useful purpose it still has today. Their use in passwords. 3 being related to E, 5 to S, }{ to H, etc. all initially came from just making stronger passwords.

Yes, but AoL and AIM popularized it.

You had the odd geek here and there substituting 3s, 5s, and brackets for letters, but this was hardly widespread or common usage.

Then AIM came out, and people were looking for ways to type faster, so it started becoming a lot more wide-spread, esp. when younger/more lazy people started using AoL/AIM, and then the final nail in Typed English's coffin was earlier cellphones capable of text messaging, where people got even more lazy, though I can kinda understand -- trying to type out something using only 10 keys sucks.