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article, comic, drawing, english, funny, harvard, image, language, learning, life, photo, school, skills, text speak, txting, writing
I found this picture and I thought it was pretty funny. With certain individuals you can find this kind of text talk on facebook as well. I’m not a grammar Nazi but I don’t like text talk. I find it can often take more time to figure out what they’re trying to say then it would have taken to write it out properly. When you’re writing in a text message, I understand the desire to shorten, I do too from time to time. But if I have the room, I’ll just write it out properly.
I went to school for so many years so, why throw out all the English I learned? Presumably, despite what the teachers may have liked to think, English’s core purpose (at the very least) during high school was to improve one’s communication skills and confidence with the written language to prepare one for reading and writing (rather than specifically essays, poetry and creative writing skills). So, at the very least I can use full words instead of text speak in everyday life. That’s what I figure at least.
What are your thoughts?
EDIT: Hilarious article, a must read!
“If you think an apostrophe was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, you will never work for me. If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building.”
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/07/i_wont_hire_people_who_use_poo.html
– Ermisenda Alvarez
Ermilia 
a fabulous point!!
Thanks for commenting, Terry!
I love the cartoon. I deeply respect those who take the time to write full sentence. It’s just my thing.
I thought it was pretty funny. ^^
Speechless! 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
Right? It’s worse as a second language. My friend in India shared a message with me I couldn’t even begin to decipher. He’s like, “Nope, that’s English!”
I could understand if you were paying per character, but then why would anyone want to pay to send the letters OMG?
Hehe, that sounds like a brain teaser. I think some text messages definitely can be. Thanks for sharing, Annie!
A lot of so-called text-speak pre-dates it by decades and goes back to morse code telegraphy, where spelling out entire words would waste a lot of time. Even today, if you could read the messages sent between radio hams – maybe old timers on the morse key – you would hear “Tnx QSO es cuagn” and “cul fer sked”. Those groups of letters might mean nothing to you, but basically they are in English; the first phrase means “Thanks for the contact and see you again”, the second means “See you later for our scheduled contact”. I have seen ‘tnx’, ‘cuagn’, and ‘cul’ in cell phone texts. Granted that telegraphers are rarer than texters, English nevertheless survived the technology. The same kids who text each other spend time emailing, blogging, and posting their status on Facebook, all of which media thrive on recognisable English. It will survive because of other pressures for it to do so.
By the way, am I the only person who uses “Oh Em Gee!” in speech, as a handy euphemism so as not to caught taking the Lord’s name in vain? 🙂
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I don’t use “Oh Em Gee” but I do say “LOL”… I think I’m probably sillier for doing so. ^^
Great cartoon! Thank you for sharing it. And it’s a topic that should not be taken lightly. As you said, we invest so much time and energy, not to mention money, into our education to let us be reduced to shortcuts, even if it be only in text messaging. I studied English literature and am a great proponent of saving and promoting my mother tongue, Macedonian, so I don’t see this “drift” as something to be considered modern nor a variety of common/colloquial language.
In my native language we go by the rule “read as you write it, write as you read it” which means we have a letter per speech sound, for example, the word “tatko” (father) is pronounced as seen, no alteration. I know this might sound a bit confusing, but my point is that this new “wave” tends to do the same, simplifying the language in an unnatural way or replacing certain words with numbers (which absolutely grosses me out).
When I saw “I don’t know” reduced to “dunno” I was out of my mind. If 10 years ago we considered it a great setback allowing pop culture to replace the role of educator and were appalled to the answer “Bart’s Father” to the question “Who is Homer?” in more that 80 percent of the high school students, then imagine where this might take us.
“Dunno” is not an answer.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, Vezilka. You have some great insights. It’s one thing to make mistakes because one is still learning, as I do in the third language I’m trying to acquire, but if one is short cutting for the sake of short cutting… well I see the appeal but I don’t see the benefit of doing so in the long run. Habits can arise suddenly and it can be hard to relearn to properly spell or to use grammar properly.
Nice cartoon! Language changes all the time, English more than others. What was proper grammer and form two hundred years ago is almost unrecognisably archaic today and the same will be true of our writing in the decades and centuries hence. As long as the message is delivered and understood I suppose I won’t be too concerned about it. Embrace the change and all that!!! 🙂
Haha, that’s very true! A nice perspective. Embrace the change, YOLO. 😉 😛
The thing is, in England anyway, most phone companies offer unlimited texts with your contracts now anyway, so there is no need to save space by shortening your words like there was in the old days. I type out full words with punctuation and everything usually, my only let down is the use of smiley faces and things like omg and lol, just because they’re a staple of our generation now. But I would never write like “c u l8r”
Yeah, I agree with you. I use smiley faces and use LOL. I never caught onto using numbers as part of my words though… It’s the same here in Australia now, most companies provide unlimited texts. Maybe people will drift back into proper grammar and spelling? Who knows! Thanks for commenting.
I’ve recently developed the opinion that the internet age is actually helping with literacy. Consider: if you want to do any sort of communication via the internet (comment, facebook, twitter, etc.), you have to write what you’re thinking. Is the grammar and spelling often terrible? Yes. But the fact is that kids are actually writing and reading, which means they are developing at least some grasp of the English language. Also, love the cartoon 🙂