The Gr8 Deb8 of Teen Txting: Text Messaging Ruining The English Language?
By Cory Howard
OMG, LOL, BRB…sounds like something your kids text message you? What if those texts showed up on your child’s homework?
As more and more "textisms" show up on essays and papers, KHQ takes a look at the effects texting has on literacy in the classroom. Is the need to abbreviate undoing all the grammar and spelling students have learned over the years? Or is this language’s natural evolution?
In the digital age, teenagers regularly scrap the English dictionary for a new dialect: "Textese" or "Text-speak." Textese drops consonants, vowels, and punctuation, and uses letters and numbers interchangeably.
"Me and my friends have created our own language," On Track Academy student Marie Townsend said. "My texts are mostly just texting language. I do mix some actual words in there but I don’t use punctuation."