This week my group and myself were lucky enough to be
presenting on something that is SO relevant to our everyday lives that it was
actually hard to contain our excitement – our online identities and
interactions. Yes, this means that trawling through Facebook, YouTube, memes
and other various fun things on the interwebs was considered study! Whilst
doing this I pondered the role of ‘txt spk’ both online and offline; does text
speak translate to real life? Thus the gr8 deb8 of txt spk arises!
I used to think, especially when I was a ‘12ie’, that
the way I spoke in text messages online made me forget and challenge my standard
English skills. In essays I found myself using “u” for “you”, “c” for “see/sea”,
and many other weird and embarrassing ways to spell simple words and phrases.
HOWEVER! You’ll be glad to know that Drouin and Davis found no significant
differences “between [texters and non-texters] in standardized literacy scores
or misspellings of common text speak words” (2009, p46). This suggests that the
way I type online does not impact on the way I write essays or other academic
word. In other words, I was just lazy and couldn’t be bothered to write out the
full word (shame on you, Cassie!).
You’ll be glad to know that my n00b years are over and
I now actually type like a relatively normal person online. Yet, I think this
also enters the debate. It’s surprising the amount of times I see trolls saying,
“IT’S NOT THERE OR THEIR, IT’S THEY’RE!!1!”. Is text speak graduating from
being at a primary level of conversational language to a more pedantic way of
speaking? Or are my Facebook friends just a bunch spelling nerds? I’d like to think
it’s not the latter. Being an English Literature student I h8 da wAyYy ppl tlk
lyk dis 4 no re4soN.
Drouin, M & Davis, C 2009, “R u txting? Is the Use of Text Speak
Hurting Your Literacy?”, Journal of
Literacy Research, vol.41, no.1, pp46-67.
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