Earlier this week, I had a little fun at the LeMieux campaign's expense, picking on the odd way they had chosen to display the national debt as "million millions" instead of trillions.
I had called it "George LeMieux Campaign's Math Problem," but I'm thinking I should have called it an abbreviation problem...especially after seeing what LeMieux posted on his Twitter account this afternoon:
"Gr8t?"
I've seen "GR8" many times as an abbreviation for "great," but "Gr8t" just doesn't make any sense. If "8" is being used to substitute for the "ate" sound in "great," then there's no need for another "t."
As a prolific user of Twitter myself, I'm very familiar with the challenges of working with Twitter's 140 character limit. I've used "GR8," "4" instead of "for," etc. many times. "Gr8t" saves only one character, whereas "GR8" saves two. The fact that LeMieux said "Gr8t" not once, but twice, shows it wasn't just a typo.
It may sound like something silly, but in an era when Twitter and other online communication methods are increasingly important, little missteps can quickly add up.
LeMieux's campaign released a cutesy Facebook parody ad today attacking Bill Nelson, but little things like this show that he has a long way to go before the language of social media comes naturally.
I had called it "George LeMieux Campaign's Math Problem," but I'm thinking I should have called it an abbreviation problem...especially after seeing what LeMieux posted on his Twitter account this afternoon:
"Gr8t?"
I've seen "GR8" many times as an abbreviation for "great," but "Gr8t" just doesn't make any sense. If "8" is being used to substitute for the "ate" sound in "great," then there's no need for another "t."
As a prolific user of Twitter myself, I'm very familiar with the challenges of working with Twitter's 140 character limit. I've used "GR8," "4" instead of "for," etc. many times. "Gr8t" saves only one character, whereas "GR8" saves two. The fact that LeMieux said "Gr8t" not once, but twice, shows it wasn't just a typo.
It may sound like something silly, but in an era when Twitter and other online communication methods are increasingly important, little missteps can quickly add up.
LeMieux's campaign released a cutesy Facebook parody ad today attacking Bill Nelson, but little things like this show that he has a long way to go before the language of social media comes naturally.
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