Because chat is nothing more than text on a screen, there are also symbols to denote facial expressions when necessary to help clarify the chatter's meaning. If these don't make any sense to you, try looking at them sideways. The acronyms and shortcuts become easier to understand when you imagine a dozen or more people in a room at one time. So your messages might arrive to one person in 2 seconds, and another in 307 seconds. Besides meeting new people with similar interests, one of the most common reasons is that it's far less expensive than most other forms of communication.
Most chatters agree, though, that chat is a limited means of communication.
If I want to communicate, I pick up the phone. In real-life conversation, you get both body language and a tone of voice to help you interpret what someone is trying to say. On the phone, you get the tone of voice. In chat, you get neither. Listing of IRC help pages Return to the Weekly's Main Page.