Why do people use TL;DR on forums when there is the perfectly good word: summary?
Because "too long, didn't read" does not mean the same as "summary".
If I see a block of text (maybe even source code) that goes nowhere, has no page/line breaks, conveys little information, or doesn't have a useful précis (there's another good word! Even shorter) tl;dr is often my go-to response.
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IKR? bcuz u wanna sav tim wrtng.
Abbreviations and acronyms have been around since BC. In Morse Code, LOL means "Hello, is there anybody out there?" (superseding the well established CQ which means "Is there anybody out there?" When pagers popped up, number codes would mean entire sentences, for example, 143. The modern online abbreviations came from the cellular telephone keypads where some letters needed four pushes of one button. You (and many) have learned to "type" (the modern abbreviation of "typesetting" one character block at a time, for an entire book) on a keyboard organized to *slow your typing speed as to not jam the mechanical hammers causing the letters to be printed on paper. You still have that keyboard on your computer. I tried, in vain, with a computer resale company called Gateway, to get my keyboard replaced (for free) with the Dvorak keyboard, and wrote a plea to make the standard keyboard a Dvorak, whose response was, "No one wants to re-learn typing on a different keyboard." The Dvorak keyboard, in the hands of a modern clerk would save eight-times less finger travel, allowing eight-times faster writing... but who am I to know? Today, we are back in the days of typing with two thumbs. Not because the Remington has a physically heavy, mechanical hammer, but because good ideas do not matter when pitted against popularity.
TL;DR - nature finds the path of least resistance.
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