By now, everybody, I hope, knows what LOL stands for. Most people probably recognize IMHO, BRB, and AFK. (If you don’t know these, you can always Google* them.) Online shorthand like this arose, of course, because it’s so hard to type full English words on a cellphone’s number keypad. And it’s tedious to type the same common phrases over and over again in chat rooms or instant messages. [Update: O
![The Next Generation of Online Shorthand](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/cfb134edf543e94295d229f5224c8a8f1174c76d/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fstatic01.nyt.com%2Fpackages%2Fimages%2Ficons%2Ft_logo_300_black.png)