LAUREN’S BLOG

TEXT SPEAK

by Lauren Capon

A staggering 4.4 billion text messages were sent in March 2009 in the UK, the nation’s fixation with texting showing no sign of deteriorating. In fact, over 72% of mobile phone owners regularly use text messaging to communicate, up from 65% the previous year. Texting has become one of the most keenly adopted methods of communication of the last 20 years, competing with e-mail and instant messaging.

Punctuation, spelling and grammar are far from vital for many texters, e-mailers and instant messengers. Texting has unwittingly induced the widespread adoption of its own form of shorthand, commonly known as ‘text speak’, sometimes phonetic and often acronymic. The lack of spell check or predictive text on phones allows the sender to freely disobey the rules of sentence construction and word formation. Text speak began with a few fairly obvious abbreviations: for example ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘2’ for ‘too’ or ‘to’, ‘coz’ for ‘because’. But as the popularity of texting has increased, users, particularly the young generations, have sought out new and often incomprehensible ways of expressing themselves.

Unsurprisingly, this corruption of the English language in these popular new forms of conversing has become a breeding ground for controversy, with numerous academics suggesting that text speak is corrupting spelling and grammar among today’s youth.

Even punctuation has been augmented: little faces are used to portray the different emotions and expressions of the sender. It is 25 years since the emoticon was born, starting with the smiley and sad faces. However the emoticon has evolved, as have all elements of text speak, and there are now 16 pages of them in the texters’ A-Z.

It’s inevitable really; language, and the way we use it, is constantly changing. Language is almost infinitely adaptable, and as humans it is in our nature to use it in every way possible. But the introduction of text speak has effectively generated what some would class as a new language in itself.  Technology has already done damage to communication. The art of letter writing is all but lost following the introduction of e-mail, and the skill of essay writing has been dampened due to many writers forgetting simple features of grammar: capital letters, commas, the correct use of the apostrophe. Shockingly, even The Oxford English Dictionary has followed the trend and removed the hyphen from around 16,000 words for the publication of its sixth edition. Seemingly, we are so desperate for quick fix communication that we no longer need, or have time, to reach for the hyphen key on our mobiles or keyboards.

It makes you wonder where we will be in 100 years time or so. Perhaps primary school students won’t even be taught to hand-write (sorry, handwrite) the alphabet, but instead be given their own computers and taught how to type. Maybe even spoken language will develop into a form of slang. Exams will be sat on computers, or perhaps iPads, and the finished test paper emailed to the exam board at the end of the exam.

There’s no denying that the SMS revolution (Short Message Service) is upon us all. Something needs to change.

Or to rephrase: SMEFING NEEDZ 2 CHNGE?