Pet Peeves # 3: Text Speak. Or should that be "txt spk"?

A comment posted on one of my other blogs this week had me gnashing my teeth in fury and rolling my eyes in disgust. (Why yes, I DO love me some drama, yes I do.) I reproduce it here for your amusement:

"does n e one no wher chanelle got her black bow chain she wears xoxox"

Eh? Now, call me stupid (many people do) but it took me a good few seconds to actually translate this to "Does anyone know where Chanelle got her black bow chain she wears". Even that's not the greatest grammar in the world ever, but at least you could understand it - which is, after all, the whole point of writing. Why write something that people will have to puzzle over and spend time decoding when you could just get straight to the point with some good, old fashioned English?

Sadly, I think that good, old fashioned English is becoming an endangered species. The "xoxox" at the end of the message above tells me that it was probably written by a teenager, and this is how many teenagers seem to communicate these days. The text message has killed off the English language. Oh, how we mourn!

Personally, I refuse to give in to the txt spkrs. That's why Pet Peeve # 3 is Text Speak. It should really have been number one, shouldn't it?

Comments

[JanO]

Well said! I'm on a personal quest to ensure that good grammar, proper punctuation and correct spelling never go out of fashion.

[Korik]

I'm sixteen, and as to your comments on the atrocious spelling, I completely agree. It's not just the spelling, but the whole comprehension suffers!

At ARcentral.net's forums, we call them, "n00bs." We think that, in general, they're people who never passed Pre-kindergarten, and they type whatever random thoughts come into they're head. (Even if they are in the middle of a sentence.)

I support the vowels!

[Korik]

I'm sixteen, and as to your comments on the atrocious spelling, I completely agree. It's not just the spelling, but the whole comprehension suffers!

At ARcentral.net's forums, we call them, "n00bs." We think that, in general, they're people who never passed Pre-kindergarten, and they type whatever random thoughts come into they're head. (Even if they are in the middle of a sentence.)

I support the vowels!