It is a phrase popping up in online forums that mean 'get to the point, spend less words!'
Which lead me to realize yet another difference in living overseas. I work in an environment where a large percentage of the community does not speak English as their primary language. Also, in that same community there is a percentage of people who are not, how shall I say... tech-savvy? They self profess 'I'm not a computer person.'
There is a vernacular that exists inside of the 'online' community. Speech shortcuts, colloquialisms, acronyms, that speed up communication.
Accompanying that, everyone has their own personal screens (iphones, ipads, etc) and so are more prone to get bored with what you're saying.
The end result is, you have about 15 seconds to grab the attention of someone in the U.S. or online community these days.
I however, have been honing my online communication to be much more verbose, because of the community I live in. It is very easy to be misunderstood online, especially given the environment I live in, so I have taken steps to try to avoid miscommunication because of brevity.
Which ironically is exactly what the people I'm spending time amongst now, value.
All that means... my emails, my blogs, my EVERYTHING is possibly too long for most of the people in the U.S.
I'm taking a few steps, to correct that, like reading articles linked below, and attempting to NOT bury the headline. (oh look I spoke in a colloquialism! I try not do to that for my non American friends... 'terms of speech' aka colloquailisms or vernacular, often confuses people from other countries, and so I've been trying to stop using them, though they are VERY handy when in your home country!)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2014/03/11/are-your-emails-too-long-hint-probably/
Speaking with me, or my family, requires much more patience from people here in the U.S. because of these new speech patterns we've learned.
Ironically, you would find it very hard to communicate with a Papua New Guinean. Repetition is a key part of their speech patterns, whereas here, repetition would be boring or distracting.
As a result, I've gotten this sense of 'if I'm speaking to one of my family or friends here in the U.S., I have to speak quickly or I will lose them.' as compared to PNG, where I have to speak clearly, and repetitively or I will lose them.
Two very different styles of speaking!
I'm finding it just one among many other things to adjust to.
(side note: The secret to comedy is timing. I've found it an interesting side study to count syllables in jokes, and measure laughter. Stand ups do this all the time, saying a joke several different ways to hone it into its funniest version over time. Some words are funnier, some syllable counts are better. There is an art to it. I have found, that leaving words OUT of a joke, here in the U.S. often leads to more laughter. It's hard to explain but:
"Why did the chicken cross the road?" doesn't get near as many laughs as
"Chicken meet road"
I'm sure there's more to it... and I have a whole other theory about that, maybe a different blog post on my theory of humor references and movie quotes.
