There was a time when teenagers didn’t get a cell phone until they reached high school and, even then, texting was 10 cents a message. There was a time where your parents couldn’t use a cell phone, much less send a text. Now many parents are fluent in “Textese.” Remember how cool you felt the first time you used the phrase “lmao” and the person you were texting had to ask you what it meant?
It all started with the instant message. When I was in middle school, the Internet was rushing into every day American life and creative screen names were all the rage. I still remember how clever I thought it was when I picked “Dotalkback” as my screen name. And, I still remember how incredibly insightful I thought I was when I wrote things like “hi wat up? doin hwk? sux 4 u lol.” Looking at that now makes me cringe.
As the world progressed from instant messaging to text messaging, I saw the light. My love and passion for the English language developed and, then, I noticed it. The English language was slowly being ruined by the world of texting. I, saddened by this revelation, contemplated why those who texted could not see the difference between the text world and proper English.
The answer seems so clear to me now. No, it was not those young adults my age who experienced texting in a limited capacity in their formative years. It was those who were raised on it, brought up in the already developed world of this Internet generation. Growing up, I learned English from books. Teenagers raised today read what was being said on Facebook and their poor impressionable minds soak up all the “idks”, “lols” and “btws.”
But, wait. Then, it is our fault, the group of people my age. We’re the ones who continue to promote such improper language long after we should have matured in our speech. Students of N.C. State, I ask you – No! – beg you to consider what abbreviations you use.
When I text, I use all the proper capitalization, punctuation and spelling. My texting grammar is supreme. However, it’s silly of me to think that everyone would be behind the idea of making everyone do the same. But, I don’t believe it’s so farfetched to ask for a few little things. Try saying “hey! lets get lunch. we can meet at the atrium.” instead of “lunch @ atrium.” Try saying “okay. see you soon.” instead of “k c u soon.” These two examples don’t have capitalization or even totally correct punctuation, but they at least offer some sense of what the language is supposed to look like.
If we, as students, can transfer back into proper English, maybe those teenagers who look up to us won’t be so quick to use “2nite” instead of “tonight.”