I agree. Use words!

I find the use of acronyms to be very egotistical. The implication is "I know what this means. Do you? If you don't, you'll have to figure it out. If you can't figure it out, you're an idiot."

And acronym usage is often totally superfluous. Most of us probably go for weeks without the phrase "in my humble opinion" crossing our lips, but there are people who seem to insert "IMHO" into every other post they make on the Web.

Doesn't it defeat the purpose of using "shorthand" when the reader has to spend his time and effort decrypting and translating parts of the writer's message?

And, anyway, most of us have seen the commonly used Internet acronyms so often that they no longer carry any power. "LOL" meaning "laugh out loud" has become so common and sterile that it lacks sincerity. If someone responds to one of my posts with "LOL" I'm not sure whether they really found it funny or if they're just being polite. If they respond with a simple English statement like "That's funny!" I know they mean it.