Technology has created its own languages, one of the most popular and influential of which is textspeak. Textspeak makes it easier to convey a message without wasting time and it has given us the ability to express things that we feel inside without physically doing them.
It even contains synonyms of abbreviations such as 2nite/2nyt/2nte, BFF/BFFL/BFFNMW, Ayt/Aite/Aight which speak of its complexity as a language.
It is so influential that its phrases are becoming frequently used in popular culture and music (who has Usher’s “OMG” playing in their heads right now?)
But sometimes I think to myself “Technology these days, smh.” Technology has taken away many of the things that made human communication sacred and is leading to startling amouts of illiteracy. Especially in the younger generation who have fallen victim – albeit willingly – to textspeak.
Over the years textspeak has advanced to the point where everything that is contained within is an acronym or an abbreviation for a real word. Even the word “text” has been shortened to “txt.”
I find the whole thing utterly ridiculous and shameful that speaking like this deemed a language by some, it can be put on the same levels as some of the most intricate languages humanity has ever produced. Now this mockery of the English language actually has its own dictionary (as if it were worthy of such a thing).
Textspeak is an example of how technology has not only made us lazy, but dimmed our intelligence in the process.
To the point that we are not only too lazy to use whole words, but in some cases actually couldn’t do so if we had the energy, because we don’t even know the proper word to use.
This not only translates into our conversations, but also into our scholarly literary essays.
Imagine: I actually had a class where at least three papers – final copies, I may add – were submitted in textspeak!
I was beyond shocked: I was completely horrified and have since decided that people who use textspeak in every aspect of their lives are the enemy — the enemy to the years of my life that I spent learning English so that I could come to America speaking and spelling it beautifully, the enemy to the years I spent learning grammar rules so that textspeak (and its followers) could obliterate them.
Textspeak is the sharpened dagger pushing its tip into my beloved English language and ripping it into shreds. Even though I use it, I do not allow it to take over my ability to speak and write coherent English.
Some people think I am exaggerating; that the use of textspeak does not exemplify laziness and dimness. Let’s look at a few examples provided on the right of this article. ROTFLMAO screams of the insincerity people use in conveying their emotions. No one really rolls on the floor laughing at any joke. In fact, I bet most of the people reading this article don’t need all the fingers on one hand to count the amount of times that they’ve actually done that in their lives.
Another example of this insincerity is ALOL which translates to “actually laughing out loud” which implies that most people probably aren’t even laughing when they type out the words LOL to their friends in conversations.
Textspeak also kills off the genuine beauty of words and the emotions inspired by actually seeing words like “I love you” on the screen as opposed to “I <3 u.” Personally, when I see the textspeak version of these three words it feels as though the person can’t be bothered to genuinely express how they feel about me – it’s like a shortcut for feelings. Who wants that?
As for the dimness that comes with textspeak, let me give you a few more examples.
BISFLATM is a ridiculous phrase. The fact that it’s referring to a turquoise monkey makes absolutely no sense.
The replacement of the word “dude” with “d00d” is another pointless aspect of textspeak. I thought the whole point of textspeak was to shorten a word; “d00d” has the same amount of letters as its predecessor, so why not just type out the actual word?
In my opinion, textspeak should only be used in the nether regions of one’s social life, when a person really has to convey a quick message; not as a replacement for the English language. In the growth of this stupid language, I find myself using the phrase “FML” to describe my despair.
Don’t even get me started on emoticons.
Philippa Hatendi can be reached at phatendi@spartans.ut.edu.
I completely agree with you. I love using textspeak in Facebook and when I text someone, but when I see these errors and abbreviations on essays it just pisses me off beyond belief. I don’t know what it is, it just really bothers me when someone can’t spell properly or have proper grammar. Example, when someone uses “than” instead of “then” or vice-versa. UGH!