Texting harms are English
by Zack Stern 
{ Apr 26th 2007 at 4:32PM }
First the bees and now our ability to write -- mobile phones are destroying us all. Ireland's State Examination Commission says that texting terse messages keeps kids from learning to spell, causing the world to go all Idiocracy on us.While our gaming habits may not be destroying the planet, unless all that WiFi we've got flying around is harmful, even gamers with full-size keyboards use 1337 speak. And what will happen when thumb-sized console keyboards debut? We're in favor of tools to avoid the shrill sounds of Xbox Live gamers, but will this cost us our written language? Maybe punctuation is overrated.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris @ Apr 26th 2007 4:44PM
Well Zack has been using his phone to much. Texting harms 'are'(our) English =P
When ever I send messages I dont use l33t speak, I prefer to remain smart.
Alex @ Apr 26th 2007 4:44PM
Any American seen the Verizon commercial of a little girl speaking in acronyms to her mom? Funny commercial, I know many who do that in online gaming. Even more disturbing are people who say "lol" to me in real life. They wont actually laugh, but say "lol" instead.
Chris @ Apr 26th 2007 4:46PM
People who say 'l o l' or 'lol' spend to much time on the internet or WoW (I had an old friend who said 'lol' when he was playing WoW)
Zack Stern @ Apr 26th 2007 4:47PM
Good call, Chris. That was the point of the headline.
haywood jablomey @ Apr 26th 2007 4:51PM
I've seen that Verizon commercial. I despise it w/a passion. I believe the written language has been lost w/the current generation of kids. I used to think "ebonics" was depressing, but this is even worse.
AoE @ Apr 26th 2007 5:11PM
@haywood jablomey,
I hope you see the irony in your own post. ;)
Caleb @ Apr 26th 2007 5:12PM
Me fail english? That's unpossible!
Rootbeer @ Apr 26th 2007 5:13PM
wat u say...!
minus_273 @ Apr 26th 2007 5:14PM
WTF does the headline mean? the dangers of texting come from england?
hvnlysoldr @ Apr 26th 2007 5:27PM
Shine Get!
Neebs @ Apr 26th 2007 5:29PM
I still laugh at that cereal box, purely for "SAVE ON GEFORCE4!"
Nathanael @ Apr 26th 2007 5:31PM
Before anyone starts crying about how language is being destroyed they should read "The unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher. It is an amazing read and sheds light on how languages change.
Farseer @ Apr 26th 2007 5:33PM
All your English are belong to us.
Zertoss @ Apr 26th 2007 5:47PM
Haha I say "lawl" to my cousins when they say something that wasn't particularly funny.
347 1337!!!!11onehundredandeleven
17 PWNZ0RZ TEH P0P74R7$
losttoys @ Apr 26th 2007 5:53PM
jablomey -
What I find funny is that you are upset over the typing skills of our youth but you are treading the same road they are by typing "w/" instead of "with."
1337 speek and all came around to save time when talking on IRC, IMs, and online games. I have no problem at all with people using "LOL", "BRB" and so forth as long as these contractions do not make their way into real life or in professional/scholastic work.
Jose @ Apr 26th 2007 6:01PM
Perhaps all your blogging should be done in 1337 speak from here on out, as a sort of "Scared Straight" mechanism to discourage such sloth in your loyal readers, natch.
Man, what I wouldn't have given had my dad sat me down and made me smoke a whole oz. or weed to the dome the first time he caught me stoned...
Samantha @ Apr 26th 2007 6:03PM
Technophobia and the prescriptive linguistic approach.
Back in the 18th century, the natural changes in the English language were being bemoaned as 'corrupting'. Language didn't stop naturally changing for petulant grammarians then, and it won't stop changing now for those prescriptive folk who are oblivious enough to think that a language variety can be either 'good' or 'bad'.
If kids are using text speak in inappropriate contexts, then they need to be better taught the situational constraints of language use. You don't use slang in a job interview, and you don't use abbreviations in an English exam. This is common sense. Context, context, context. There is nothing wrong with text language, and it is not inherently 'worse' than any other variety of language. It's just less suitable for some contexts than others.
But, meh. Many people are still incorrectly convinced that nonstandard dialects somehow indicate a lack of intelligence or substandard education in the speaker, so it'll be a VERY long while before the discrimination is overcome in written language.
Phillip @ Apr 26th 2007 6:07PM
@15, @9, and @2
What I find funny is your lack of ability to get sarcasm and satire. I mean, a remote post here or there where people just don't get it, sure. But three posts all one article? I guess it must happen statistically speaking, but sheesh.
Xalaga @ Apr 26th 2007 6:36PM
Translation of the above article for the keybordly challanged:
1 the b33$ 4nd n0w 0ur pwns 2 txt – cells R pwning us 4ll. ISEC saiz th4t txting k33ps the p33ps fr0m 0wning the $p3ll c4u$ing Teh w0rld 2 g0 4ll Idi0cr4cy 0n u$. Teh m0v pwns!
Pl4ying 4int pwnig e4rth, but wifi ownz us, we 4ll u$e teh 1337 txt. H4114 2 thum8 k3y$! N0 m0re t4lking 1n RL, but pwning 1337 $tyle!
P0pt4rz FTW!
SuperDave @ Apr 26th 2007 6:36PM
D00D I DONT KNOW WUT UR TOKNG ABOUT!!1!111! LOL IV3 BEN TEXTNG AL MAH LIEF AND TURNED OUT FIEN!!111!1! WTF LOL
Rubang B @ Apr 26th 2007 6:52PM
Samantha Pwnzed this entire thread. Linguists in the house!
Also, I never really use 1337 stuff, UNLESS I'm actually speaking, because then it's just hilarious.
Mr Khan @ Apr 26th 2007 6:52PM
Back when i played PSO for Dreamcast and GameCube, i used to get very involved in the usage of internet jargon (mostly because i was too cheap to spring for a Dreamcast keyboard, but eventually i found a GameCube PSO keyboard in the bargain bin)
Ever since, its been mostly proper english, although i find it amusing to use such terms as "lol" and "zomg" in real life. "w00t" and 1337 too occassionally. I am well known at my school for my good diction while on AIM
But Nathaneal is right, if the peoples of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Romania had all made sure to retain proper use of their languages, we would have no Spanish, Portuguese etc. it would all still be Latin
atsui @ Apr 26th 2007 7:58PM
leet speak is lame.
Jerk Face @ Apr 26th 2007 8:06PM
@ #6 Ha ha. Nice!
Also, that picture is f*cking awesome. I want 1337 cereal!
Brendon @ Apr 26th 2007 8:50PM
Back in the long ago of online chat, I took me a while to realize that "BRB" didn't mean someone was talking to or about me specifically, being my initials and all. My sympathies go out to all of you LOLs, BTWs, and IMOs!
serotoninzero @ Apr 26th 2007 9:15PM
@Brendon:
Don't forget people saying thank you as 'ty'...
That always confuses me.
(It's my name.)
nagglerdamus @ Apr 26th 2007 10:08PM
AMAZING CEREAL
Piemaster @ Apr 27th 2007 3:00PM
I type with punctuation and all that stuff, but I use lol whenever I'm too lazy to dignify a comment with a n actual response. And anyone who still uses 133t, get with the times, people only talk in l33t to make fun of it.
Acceptable Risk @ Apr 27th 2007 12:34AM
Whenever I have more than a few seconds to express myself, I endeavor use decent spelling and sentence style. On the Internet, the only thing you have to represent yourself are your words. I try my best to present the best image I can.
People who abbreviate short words or mix up homophones really get on my nerves sometimes. It's as if no one cares about the image they present anymore.
adium @ Apr 27th 2007 5:32AM
the only real internet speak i use is lol etc. other than that i try to spell all the words correctly
when texting, mite, nite, tomoro. its all because of the limit of characters you can fit it. you'd be texting 4 word messages if you spelt everything correctly
bob @ Apr 27th 2007 6:19AM
herro, u noobs r wak yo ROLF you can lol all u like but u cant lmao like i can, i gots me the best english eva, i neva use intnt spek yous is just wak yo
Trev @ Apr 27th 2007 6:20AM
If kids are using text speak in inappropriate contexts, then they need to be better taught the situational constraints of language use.
That is what's happening though. Kids are using 'wot' and '+' in exams these days and abbreviated slang forms that they have learnt from using their mobiles/cells rather then actually learning to spell properly. It's a bigger problem in the UK as mobiles have been commonly available for a lot longer then they have in the states.
Aberu @ Apr 28th 2007 1:19AM
Sadly texting HAS been the leading cause for the increased kanji illiteracy in Japan among students. All they do is type in the kanji. They can read it most of the time, but the equivalency for written Kanji has dropped almost half in number since texting has been big in Japan (like 8-10 years). Despite the fact this article has practically nothing to do with gaming, I still think it's interesting. I think people sending ridiculous text messages is sneaking into their normal writing.