Text speak and the over 40's

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Skint Gull

New member
Jul 27, 2003
2,980
Watchin the boats go by
I am only 25 and I detest text speak with a passion and think there's a real danger that more and more people will have spelling and grammer difficulties in years to come due to this (and yes, I know my spelling is not exactly perfect before some smart arse picks me up on it).

It was just about understandable when phones first came out as texts were so expensive and people were trying to say as much as they could for as few characters as possible.

Nowadays texts are free or very cheap for the majority of people so why do people do it? It often takes more effort and just as many pushes of the button to write something in text speak than it does to write it properly, especially now we have predictive text on mobiles.

I generally believe well know acronyms are the only acceptable forms of shorthand on texts, anything else is plain chavy
 




Yorkshire-Seagull

New member
Feb 11, 2008
445
ROFLCOPTER !!!!

Seriously, the younger people are actually starting to speak in text language now. Heard two girls actually say "roffle" (as in ROFL)....

What is the world coming to... Hell in a handcart....etc etc....
 


Skint Gull

New member
Jul 27, 2003
2,980
Watchin the boats go by
ROFLCOPTER !!!!

Seriously, the younger people are actually starting to speak in text language now. Heard two girls actually say "roffle" (as in ROFL)....

What is the world coming to... Hell in a handcart....etc etc....

For those of you like me who had no f***ing clue what an 'ROFL' was?

ROFL - Definition by AcronymFinder


What a crock of shit, those girls should be shot
 
















blue'n'white

Well-known member
Oct 5, 2005
3,082
2nd runway at Gatwick
Dreadful - I can (just about) accept it on a text - as you're trying to get your point across is 160 characters (although I write almost every word out in full anyway) but when you get an e-mail with text speak it just comes across as lazy - well it does to me. My 20 year old neice e-mailed the other day to say she was having a "gud" time - I mean that is only one less character than "good" - where's the saving for God's sake ?
 


severnside gull

Well-known member
May 16, 2007
24,827
By the seaside in West Somerset
god but I feel so old


:nono:


Still, if you consider that English is an ever-evolving language and realistically spelling (accurately) as a concern is a relatively recent phenomonon, should we be overly worried?

It's just thinking about all those years wasted learning pronunciation and grammar that makes me want to weep :shrug::wozza:
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,188
Gloucester
Text speak is in some ways nothing new. Back in the 60's there was 'speedwriting' for note taking - 't' for 'the', tt for that, 2 for to / too / two, and other words shortened, usually by leaving out some vowels -'t ppl at tt tme wer X all ignrnt"; well, it was easier than learning shorthand!
Before that, similar creativity was shown on telegrams, where you were charged per word. Thus 'Saturday. Norwich' could say exactly what was required at far less expense than forking out for the whole un-encrypted message (and yes, people knew what it meant!)
Using text speak on e-mails, or in written communications is just slovenly though.
 






bristolseagull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
5,554
Lindfield
I am only 25 and I detest text speak with a passion and think there's a real danger that more and more people will have spelling and grammer difficulties in years to come due to this (and yes, I know my spelling is not exactly perfect before some smart arse picks me up on it).

It was just about understandable when phones first came out as texts were so expensive and people were trying to say as much as they could for as few characters as possible.

Nowadays texts are free or very cheap for the majority of people so why do people do it? It often takes more effort and just as many pushes of the button to write something in text speak than it does to write it properly, especially now we have predictive text on mobiles.

I generally believe well know acronyms are the only acceptable forms of shorthand on texts, anything else is plain chavy

agreed, I too fear for the younger generation that will never be able to spell the word 'mate'
 


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