As a writer, I cringe when I see words shortened—even on Twitter where there is a character limitation. I feel like it’s dumbing everyone down—EVEN WRITERS! I’ve had family laugh at my text messages, because I type out all the words. It’s very, very rare when I type B4 for before, or 2day for today, u for you. I’m on Twitter now and I find myself annoyed with these abbreviations, along with the change in spelling, like haz, teh. GAH! ‘Texting language’ seems to be a trend branching out into many areas of life.
On LinkedIn, I’ve read that ‘texting language’ is now seeping onto resumes. We keep coming up with, as I call ‘dumbing down laws’ to compensate for those unwilling to use common sense. It seems laziness is weaving itself around and taking hold of an old form of communication. When the subject is broached to others, I usually get a defensive response such as, “It’s no big deal”, or better yet, “That’s the way things are”. Is it really the way things are, or is it the way we want things to be?
I like the information I get on Twitter that I would otherwise miss, but sometimes I find myself quickly logging off when I see too much ‘texting language’. Even though I understand the brevity of text messaging, I can’t help thinking about the destruction it does to the English language.
Yeah... I feel your pain but I am guilty too. I love that "teh" is acceptable because I'd spend the day fixing it otherwise! Fun words I like - some texting stuff drives me mad. Although... LOLcat talk is always acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI can haz cookie now?
kthxbai
*runs*
See?! I have NO idea what kthxbai means. It's unacceptable June Bug!!!!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, nice picture.
I had to study your title before I figured out what "NE" meant. I am with you all the way on the abbreviation annoyances. And I had no idea texting is seeping onto resumes. That's just wrong!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do support the evolution of language. For example, my son discovered that the word "dork" is not in my 1982 dictionary! I think culture definitely updates what passes off as language, but oy...the shortened spellings do grate on my nerves. I'm guilty of "LOL" and "Btw," but other than that, I prefer to spell everything out. My daughter makes fun of me too, when she catches me spelling the full word on the rare occasion I text someone.
Interesting & thought-provoking post.
Hi Bea,
ReplyDeleteFunny you should write this as the day before I was watching my granddaughter who is in third grade. She was texting her mother at work and using 2nite, c, u and others. I told her to stop and write out the words as they should be. Especially at her learning age I didn’t want her think that those types of abbreviations were the norm and become illiterate going forward. While she thought I wasn’t cool, I tried to emphasize that that type of language was ruining her writing and image.
Another time I attended a seminar with the chairperson of my company being the main speaker. I got there early and she was kind enough to invite me to meet with her and her traveling staff in the waiting room prior to her speech. While there she received a text message from her daughter and had to ask others in the room to interpret it. She a well educated woman could not totally decipher what her daughter had to say. Funny but sad.
I agree these types of abbreviations are a step towards illiteracy. However having said that, I do like a well placed emoticon in a message.:D
Written Not With Ink, I wasn’t even sure I wrote the ‘texting language’ properly for the title, nor do I know if that is even used. I support the evolution of language when there’s an actual definition or description of a word. I do use “LOL” and “BTW” too, but not in an obsessive manner. As writers, we don’t like seeing too many adverbs or adjectives, so stop the texting language INSANITY!!!! :D Thank you for stopping by and sharing.
ReplyDeleteVeejay, Good for you for telling your granddaughter to type it out. What happened to the days where other family members, friends and neighbors stepped in to correct or stop a child from doing something wrong? It is sad that we can’t always decipher the texting language. What’s scarier is the ease of phone and computer texting and how it can truly hurt younger generations, not only from constantly typing that way, but what they say too.
Hey, hey, now! I said nothing about emoticons. Those are expressions of how we feel and are needed in today’s times. ;)