Textese

I have never been one for abbreviations in my texts, on my phone, preferring - now that I now how to use it - to use my predictive text on my phone. I only abbreviate words when my phone wants to send more than one text. I therefore find it frustrating, and time consuming, when I get a text from someone who knows all the texting lingo as I can not understand it.
It was interesting then to see all the abbreviations on this website  - http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp and to find out what they actually mean.
I had no idea there was soo many!
It was interesting to see that some abbreviations could be interpreted as different things, depending on where you came from or who was sending them to you.
For example:
55555  Can be Crying your eyes out (Mandarin Chinese text messages) or Meaning Laughing (In Thai language the number 5 is pronounced 'ha'.)
88  Can be Bye-bye (Mandarin Chinese text messages)  or Hugs and kisses. Which I suppose are similar if its someone you are close to.
AA  Can be Alcoholics Anonymous, As above or Ask about.
AAF Can be As a matter of fact or As a friend.
These are just a few examples, if I was to write them all it would become a really long page. But it shows my point that they can be interpreted differently.
How would you know if when someone sends you 55555 that they are laughing or crying?
If it was me, I would be sending more texts to find out exactly what the actual message was and therefore using more money on my phone, which was the original reason for abbreviating texts in the first place!
I have still yet to be convinced that abbreviations provide the same functionality as the numeric codes used in early Morse code transmissions. Morse code had a serious purpose to it whereas textese seems to be more fun.
Maybe I am a bit of an old fuddy duddy or maybe its simply because I haven't used abbreviations with my texts enough to understand the full benefits it could bring!