Rant: Texting IS ruining our ability to communicate

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

• mdk

  You’re just becoming your parent’s don’t worry about it. It happens to every generation. Remember, even Socrates thought the youth of the day were coming to no good.

  They’ll still advance leaps and bounds ahead of us in the world we’re creating for them.

• olly

  I gotta agree with mdk here — is it annoying to those of us who are over the age of 20? Sure, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a debasement of the language really. After all, if a person from the Victoria era heard one of us speaking, they’d be horrified at what we’ve done to the language.

  Language evolves organically, through different generations and different mediums — there’s no stopping or controlling it, and really no need to.

  -olly

• Steve

  over 20? ROTFLMAO! I thought it was only supposed to annoy the over 40s (me!).

  Truth is, Socrates and everybody who agrees with him is wrong. Youth always strives to be different – yet somehow they always muddle through and ruthlessly depose their elders. Live with it. Soon we can retire in the Bahamas, sip margueritas and quit worrying about the rat race.

• Alex (send SMS from your computer)

  Funny there’re vocabularies with the texting/chat acronyms that have hundreds of them already and that resemble a real language

  On a positive note though, the uber business folks have been using something similar for years now with all of these EOB’s, RFP’s, FYI’s, etc…

• Emily

  Im a teenage txter, and I think everyone is making a big fuss out of nothing. Yes I txt alot and often shorten words, but I also enjoy and take pleasure in making my txt messages interesting for the reciever. And as for it ruining my ability to write, well I recently got the highest mark possible at my school for my creative writing, and spelling and grammar played a huge part in this. I know I may speak for a minority, but we teenagers aren’t trying to destroy the english language, how is that even posssible. We are simply creating a new language of our own. Adults already control most of our lives, so give us a break, seeing as you arent 14 and are txting your mates, Im unsure how you have any idea of how or why we txt. Adults txt in a very different way to teenagers and as we grow up our txting style will evolve, I used to use dat instead of that a couple of years ago but now find that it is my younger sister who txts like that. You english language is safe.

• Arindam Roy

  I think sms language is good at its place. Sms language is good as while sending a message if both the person understand it then it can save a lot of their time as well as their money. Sms-es format should be treated as telegram format. Just like we use telegram format only in a Telegram we should use sms format only in an sms. But sometimes sms language can be used for beneficial purposes like Lengthy notes dictated by teacher can be written in this format and can later be copied into proper english. This would let the student waste no time as well as not miss out anything uttered by the teacher. But too much sms language used can turn a language into its slang form. Therefore, sms language is good for Fantasy as well as quickhelp but not as a long term basis language.

• Bridget

  Emily, you make me fear for future generations.
  We’re trying to move forward, but we’re going backward in great leaps and bounds. Seeing how you shorten the word “text” to “txt,” spell the word “received” as “recieved,” and almost completely disregard punctuation, I really don’t believe that our language is safe. We’re heading for a nation of morons, because people are willing to shorten words and ignore basic rules of grammar.
  And just so you know, I’m the same age as you. I’m not just some old person that despises technology. I can manage to function perfectly fine without texting, so why shouldn’t the rest of the world?

• mickey mouse

  ilyj…..and texting too!

• i

  i love you shannon

• Midgett

  Seriously, what exams did you take that you were allowed to use text speak? It’s a luxury I’ve certainly experience.