The texting generation is a little over a decade old, but who knew a quick way to send a message and communicate with friends would make a permanent imprint in the way humans communicate with each other... forever. Texting started as a way just to communicate with others faster but as it developed so did the way in which texters speak and write. You changed to 'u', laughing out loud changed to 'lol', and talk to you later transformed to 'ttyl.' When people even type these 'words' most of the time they don't even mean what they say. Half the time LOL is said with a straight face and no humorous characterization whatsoever."LOL has evolved into something much subtler and sophisticated and is used even when nothing is remotely amusing." Is texting killing the English language?
This topic wouldn't be of such importance, however, if the texting language hadn't jumped from the cellphone screen and onto a formal college essay. Kid's don't mean to write onto paper what they type on their phones, but it has become a natural instinct to talk so informal that people don't even realize when they're doing it. Another issue with this means of communication... no one talks anymore, not even on the phone!
According to CNN "Americans ages 18-29 send and receive an average of nearly 88 text messages per day, compared to 17 phone calls. The numbers change as we get older, with the overall frequency of all communication declining, but even in the 65 and over group, daily texting still edges calling 4.7 to 3.8. In the TIME mobility poll, 32% of all respondents said they'd rather communicate by text than phone, even with people they know very well. This is truer still in the workplace, where communication is between colleagues who are often not friends at all."
What's even more disappointing is the new generation of kids being born and a little older are going to grow up in an age where this way of communication is all they're going to know. "According to industry research, 61 percent of virtual-world visitors are between 3 and 11, and 22 percent of kids ages 6 to 9 already have their own cell phone. In a study in the journal Pediatrics, 58 percent of kids 10 to 15 listed a form of communication as the major reason to go online." States Parenting.com. They are already so accustom to iPads and iPhones that once they learn how to read and write it will basically become a second language to them, a second nature. Safe to say some 7 year olds are even better at it than some kids my age! And that says A LOT! LOL! (oops!)