"Textspeak" ;

Oh,gm I so agree. What should be a quick method of communication seems to take ages to understand. I find it particularly annoying when my friend does it. She can hardly switch her phone on and off by herself.

DH's PA was the worst offender, phone messages and e-mails were like that of a 13 year old. Surely a mature woman who creates documents and types reports all the time could at least text me like an adult. I suppose spell check means that important stuff is correct.

But we all know the Spellchecker poem, don't we?
I am afraid I just think it shows a disregard for communication and consequently for the person with whom you are communicating - gosh that does sound pedantic, doesn't it? But if you put yourself in the place of the person reading what you are writing - a modicum of consideration is hardly too much to ask. There was a time when a good PA prided herself on clear communication as it also reflected well on her boss - without it, she was unlikely to have risen to that position!

I don't know the poem gm

Oh yes you do!!!! - I have posted it before and so have (many) others. Just a minute.....

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite It's rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
It's letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Thank you. I'm obviously not reading the write (!!) threads.

Thanx!

Wash your mouth out with soap and water!!

I luv txtspk. [wooden spoon]

What's 18ter?

It's an L, jeni - l8er = later

I luv it 2 Bags. Langwidj is fun!

I'm 2old!

U guys who dont lk txtspk shd chk out Lumosity Brain Games

This was around in the 40s and 50s - they used to advertise it in the tube trains - Speedwriting I think they called it. Supposedly a plain alphabetic version of shorthand - 'gt a gd job wth mo pa!' the ad said.

I looked at it and it seemed to be offering help in things I think I already do perfectly adequately. I don't see what the connection is with articulate communication

'Lumosity training can improve memory, attention, and other cognitive areas.' Will it make us suddenly embrace textspeak?

Only if the difficulty with text speak is felt to be one's aging brain. Some people have said they find text speak difficult to deal with. Brain games might help, that's all.

For me, text speak is just like a very simple code, so I don't feel any reason to object to it so long as it isn't used in formal documents. Actually, I think it's fun. It's for informal, quick messaging. Nobody has to use it who doesn't want to, but you may have to read it if other people use it. Seems sensible to be able to deal with it should it crop up.

No swet

And are not text messages charged per character? Though one usually gets thousands of free text with most contracts...so that is no argument.

I really don't mind text talk; it's just another language development, and as long as we (English teachers) teach children to use whatever language is appropriate to the current occasion, what's the issue?

I am no good at it, though!

I can understand it all right, but I must admit to feeling rather silly using it at my age when replying to a text from DD, for example. There again, some members have expressed dislike of the abbreviations used on this site, so perhaps it is just pedantry!

gracesmum, I quite agree with you about "text" used as a past tense. Of course it should be "texted" and it always annoys me to hear people saying it wrongly, let alone texting it. Let us go boldly forward with our grammatically correct texts, punctuated perfectly, and allow those who reply to us to do as they like. We know that a pedant's life is never easy!

Thank you, too, for the poem . I've seen it before, but had forgotten it, and enjoyed seeing it again.

"Only if the difficulty with text speak is felt to be one's aging brain. Some people have said they find text speak difficult to deal with. " (*Bags*)

This was not my point. I hate the way language is being bastardised by pandering to this sort of "shorthand". I find it sloppy and ill-educated. If I want to say "See you later" what is the problem with just using English, for heaven's sake? "CU L8er" seems plain stupid to me. And why should it be acceptable to use a phonetic version when there is a perfectly adequate vocabulary which most of us have been using for years? Where's the fun inmis-spelling a word?
Sad old dears trying to appear trendy have apparently been using LOL to mean "lots of love" (and why shouldn't it?) instead of "laugh out loud" which would appear to be necessary if the inherent humour in a statement is not obvious enough.

Love the poem. Thanks.

I've always thought that the reason for phrases such as "C U L8er" are used because they require fewer key strokes than writing the phrase in full. The result is quicker text responses. I always supposed that speed was the reason text speak developed. I suppose you could call it sloppy and lazy, but I can understand people feeling the need for it and enjoying it too. Texts are also limited as to characters, so shorthands can be advantageous in that respect too – you can get more into a message. If you only have an intermittent signal, for instance, sending one message is far better than spelling everything out long hand and having to send two or three.