BTW, g2g, GAL, j/c, PXT.* IM (Instant Messaging) is transforming written English into typed speed-talking.  Computer chat rooms and email, along with cell phones with text messaging, have provided the scenario for rapid communication exchanges which do not heed grammar, spelling and punctuation conventions.  With the text messaging restriction of 160 characters, a new class of written, conversational shorthand English is developing.  This writing simulates speech and is used by IM-ers when lightning response time is more important than standard English. English, with its ability to make new words and incorporate words from other languages, has been looked upon as a very flexible language. Is IM creating written dialect of English, which will exclude people who are not computer or cell phone owners? Or, will text message English eventually be an accepted form of English literacy?

The agents in deciding the future of conversational written English fall into two broad categories.  The users are those who have access to the technology required in order to use this new form of English. The promoters are the agents whose public attitudes towards the changes in English keep the issue in the news.  Each group acts as agents of change in different ways.

Text messaging has spread like wildfire among the young.  A Nielson NetRating survey showed in 2002 that 60% of students under 17 used IM as their preferred method of socializing and communicating. In the interest of speed, words are changed into abbreviations and acronyms.  Punctuation and spelling disappear.  Grammar is truncated. Kids can IM as many people as they want depending on their typing speed and ability to multitask.  Because it is not subject to close grammatical scrutiny and standard English conventions, the message is more important than the medium.  New acronyms can be created and passed on.  A simple PXT message is sent if the receiver needs an explanation.  Language is created by the users and sometimes only the users understand.

Students are not the only people who use IM.  The American business mantra of ‘time is money’ promotes the attitude that faster is better.  The business community has picked up on this.  Cell phones and PDAs with text messaging are omnipresent in the business world. One would think that written communication between business associates would be in highly professional language but with the 160 character limit on most cell phones, IM messages between professional contacts tends to conform to truncated forms and acronyms. These users are people who can afford the most up-to-date technology. Their demand for better and faster systems keeps the software developers working hard to improve the text messaging technology.

This new form of written English has critics and advocates.  Both groups act as promoters by keeping the issue alive in the media and in journal articles.  Articles advocating the natural development of IM language are found side by side with those criticizing IM as a corruption of the English language.
English is a very fluid language, which incorporates new words easily.  Jesse Sheidlower, the North American editor of Oxford English Dictionary, believes that just as NASA and FBI have been added to standard English, acronyms like btw and j/j** will and should be added when they are commonly known. The American Heritage Dictionary web site (www.yourDictionary.com) incorporates the new acronyms as they are discovered. To these advocates, text messaging is part of the natural developmental process of language.

 Some teachers applaud the use of IM because it is a stimulus for students to write, while others say that the students are practicing a corrupted form of English.  Students of the IM generation have to be taught that invented spelling used in IM cannot be used in an essay for school.  Recently a Time Magazine article about how text messaging is setting back literacy because students are writing in hieroglyphics, appeared next to an AT&T ad promoting cell phones with text messaging for students. Because “texting” is so uncomplicated, students gravitate towards it and some teachers feel the need to fight it.  Truncated language without grammar conventions goes against traditional literacy education.  The keepers of traditional English, like teachers, editors and literary publishers, will continue to openly fight IM language in the press and in professional journals.

 The main element propelling the propagation of IM use is advertising.  Advertising promotes the use of text messaging by appealing to the business users as well as the youth.  Advertisers stress the technological capability of the new products. As the technology continues to offer better and faster ways of communication, business users want to keep up with the newest methods.  Technology improves and the ads point out how the business user must have the new product in order to be the best and the fastest.
 Advertisers also tap into the teens’ feeling that they have to have their own access to IM because everyone else does.  To the IM generation, being able to IM is important because that is the way to make friends, be connected and therefore be ‘cool’.  Advertising keeps the users demanding more technology and availability.

 At this point, stickiness is mostly among the users.  Users keep growing.  In January 1999, a British newspaper reported that there were 1 billion monthly text messages sent.  In January 2003, there were 80 billion.  This use of IM is a growing phenomenon and now those who use it form an exclusive club.  In order for IM to spark to legitimacy in the literary world the user base would have to increase to more than just the business community and youth.  On the other hand, as the young grow up, well accustomed to writing in IM English, IM terminology may start to creep into the print media.

 One spark might occur when technology develops and markets a text messaging phone, complete with acronyms and emoticons.  If the phone or IM device were affordable on a large scale, it might spark a move towards “O”.  Or if public phones or computer keyboards included the acronyms, the use of IM language might spread more quickly.

 Since correct spelling, proper grammar and punctuation use is so ingrained in the older, educated generations, accepting this written dialect as educated English will not be easy. First, acronyms would have to be standardized so that everyone could read the message they received.  Then a standardized method for forming new terms would have to be formulated.  Then, for conversational writing to reach legitimacy a number of groups must accept it.  First, teachers of the IM generation would have to allow IM language as an acceptable form of writing. Then as more students used it in academic settings, it would creep into the print media in more than just advertising and technology promotions.

 In the gradual process of acceptance, there would be favorable articles in educational journals showing research that students who IM also write more and/or better in class.  Language Arts classes would incorporate text messaging acronyms and books used in those classes would include passages written in IM language.
 Conferences such as TESOL would include interest section offerings on how to incorporate text messaging into English classes and the implications for IM language in English as an international language***.  Educational research journals would start not only to talk about IM language but would write their notes in acronyms.  Teachers would write their critical notes to students using emoticons and acronyms.  The ultimate sign of this issue O-ing would be when the APA Manual included a section on how to reference text messaging and how to include text message language in a final document.

 As technology advances and advertisers sell the faster, better and hopefully cheaper models of devices needed for IM communication, more and more people will have access to this kind of English which disregards spelling, grammar and punctuation.  So far, it is looked on as a kind of specialized code for rapid communication.  Users are basically two specialized groups: the youth and business users. But, as the IM generation enters the business world, the two groups will meet and the use will spread.  It might even tip in the direction of O.

IMHO, TAFN, HAND, IOOH****
 

*By the way, got to go.   Get a life! Just chilling.  Please explain text.
**just joking
***Text messaging is not just a phenomenon in the U.S.  In a recent article from the Philippines, the Pope decreed that IM and text messaged confessions would not be acceptable in the Catholic church!
****In my humble opinion, that’s all for now, have a nice day, I’m out of here.