What is 'textese' and is it ruining the English Language?

What is ‘textese’ and is it ruining the English Language?

One of the many stereotypes that circulate nowadays is that text speak or ‘textese’ is ruining the way young people talk and act. Of course, this stereotype has been blown completely out of proportion by prescriptivists who believe there is only one type of language and any other variation is incorrect.  A descriptivist (like myself) believes that there are multiple variations of language in which none are inferior or superior to each other.

 You are probably wondering (and if you are not, pretend you are for my sake and this post’s sake) where text messaging originated. Well, on the 3^rd December 1992, Neil Papworth used a personal computer to send the message “Merry Christmas” to the phone of Richard Jarvis and thus, texting was born. Around 8 trillion text messages are sent every year with 18.7 billion sent every day.

Now before we continue, I should probably elaborate on what ‘textese’ really is. It is a form of text speak is made up mainly of abbreviations and slang that is stereotypically linked to teenagers. In one American study, researchers found that less than 20% of messages used SMS language. Looking at his own texting history, the study's author, linguist David Crystal, noted just 10% of his messages used SMS language.

You are also probably thinking how many of those texts contain vital information, well… all of them do.  I mean, say you get a text and it reads, “I’m having curry for dinner lol”. The person clearly thought that it was important for them to inform you about the choice of meal for the evening, although you probably did not care at all and proceeded to question the status of your friendship.

I can admit, receiving texts that contain those irritating abbreviations and confusing misspelt words is incredibly annoying but the purposeful misspelling and abbreviating of words dates far back. Way way far back to before the internet and hand held phones were even an idea. Therefore, it is not that new to see words spelt incorrectly when sending messages to one another. Although on the Brightside, it is still practise for children in reading and writing.

There have been many debates by well-acknowledged people about the effects that ‘textese’ has on people and whether or not it actually is useful. Many people think it is just a child’s laziness and the fact they do not even know how to spell whereas others believe it actually has nothing to do with laziness and you actually need to know where the letters are to leave them out in the first place.    Welsh journalist and television reporter John Humphrys has criticised SMS messaging by saying that is it “...Ruining our language”, whereas the linguist David Crystal (mentioned prior) believes it has little to no effect on grammar and language and in fact it is actually a good thing.

So the real question is, who do you agree with and why?