"Students failing because of Twitter, texting,"

[LikeASista]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I have a full keyboard on my phone for a reason. I text in complete sentences and paragraphs.

Now that's a mouthful. I'm exactly like you, AlphaFrog, in that I always text in complete sentences. While it may very well save time to do the "short hand" version by using 'u' for 'you' and/or 'r' for 'are', I just think it really takes us out of being specific about communicating our thoughts and ideas to one another. The more we get out of it, the less we are able to communicate with one another. I think all of us grew up with slang as a second language , but each one of us understood the value of the written word when it was time to communicate to our teachers. Nowadays, it doesn't seem to be valued as much unfortunately.

[DrPhil]

LOL. My friends and I also text in complete words and sentences with proper grammar and spelling. I hate the character limits that make me have to shorten sentences to avoid messing up the grammar and syntax.

I guess we're all dorks who know that shorthand is technically not the same as the sucky syntax, grammar, and spelling that people do in texts and so forth.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

LOL. My friends and I also text in complete words and sentences with proper grammar and spelling. I hate the character limits that make me have to shorten sentences to avoid messing up the grammar and syntax.

Same here! The only reason I'll shorten something is if my text goes slightly over the 160 character limit. If it's going to be way over, I'll just send 2 texts. But I always change "and" to "&", take out some commas, or not leave a space in between a period and the next sentence before I start shortening and/or changing the spelling of words.

Thinking about it, I believe it takes me more time to edit my texts than it does to actually type them out sometimes

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Same here! The only reason I'll shorten something is if my text goes slightly over the 160 character limit. If it's going to be way over, I just send 2 texts. But I'll always change "and" to "&", take out some commas, or not leave a space in between a period and the next sentence before I start shortening and/or changing the spelling of words.

Thinking about it, I believe it takes me more time to edit my texts than it does to actually type them out sometimes

Same here! This is also why I call more than I text. If we need multiple, long texts then pleeeeeeease just call me. LOL

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Same here! This is also why I call more than I text. If we need multiple, long texts then pleeeeeeease just call me. LOL

THANK YOU!

The other problem with texting is that everyone becomes so dependent on it, that no one wants to talk on the phone anymore. If a text conversation lasts more than 10 minutes, I simply stop texting back. Then the person usually asks, "You there?" and then they call me, or decide that the conversation isn't important enough to continue, and they give up. It's stupid to text for a half hour, having to put smileys, or "LOL" after every sentence so the other person understands your tone, when a 5 minute phone call could have worked just as well... and in some cases, even better.

[ree-Xi]

I've been wondering about the bastardization of spelling and grammar for years before texting came about. I have cousins from one uncles who range from their mid teens to mid twenties, and spent a lot of time with them until the three older girls were in junior high/high school. Only the oldest out of five has what I would consider intelligent communication skills. (She has slowly been putting herself through college on her own dime and time, just got married and had a baby.). The second has probably B- level skills, and the rest just plain can't write. I'd put them in the D range.

It's really sad. Unfortunately, with the weaker academic levels, they are also making a lot of poor life choices, further limiting their ability to achieve anything past high school (still hoping the last two at least graduate). My sisters and I are the only ones in my family on either side (of over 50 first cousins) to graduate from college. I did it mostly on scholarships and academic grants, so I know it can be done. Though my parents weren't really involved in my college years, they were strict about grades through high school (and we didn't get any help on homework or projects, they just mandated stellar grades).

Do parents care anymore?

[33girl]

Perhaps they're just dumb.

Seriously, not everyone is in the same IQ range. If they're also doing stupid things in their personal lives, they probably just are not that smart.

[LikeASista]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

LOL. My friends and I also text in complete words and sentences with proper grammar and spelling. I hate the character limits that make me have to shorten sentences to avoid messing up the grammar and syntax.

Yup, ... and Twitter has really jacked us in the area of character limits.

[AlphaFrog]

I just told my mom last night (who just got a phone with a keyboard, and thus has no more excuses for poor texting grammar) that to me, proper spelling/capitalization is the same as manners - it shows you have respect for the other person. She replies with "You can't figure out where the capitals go??" D'oh! She also tells me that text speak is the "wave of the future" and is now socially acceptable. I don't buy it.

[xomanadaxo]

I've never seen anyone use text-speak in formal papers, but the quality of my peers' writing concerns me nonetheless. Yesterday I read someone's paper who, in addition to adding completely arbitrary commas in the middle of sentences, spelled "adolescence" as "adolescents" or "adolescens" through the whole paper. It was horrifying. However, errors like that don't scare me nearly as much as the "conversational" tone of writing so many people gravitate toward. Personally, I can't imagine turning in a paper that had sentences like:
"Vince Vaughn is not of the normal appearance for the average human being. He is an actor at an extraordinary height of six foot five inches tall. He is also muscularly built like he can almost be built like a football player. This is greatly portrayed through his character Jeremy throughout the entire movie. In general, a man of his stature says too many people: you look like someone who could punch me and knock me down in that one punch."
Now, I recognize that not everyone is comfortable writing in a formal tone all the time, but for academic writing (the quote above was taken from a friend's 200-level communication term paper) a conversational tone is never acceptable!
I know I'm starting to look at my own generation from a curmudgeonly "Hey you kids, get off my front lawn" perspective at the tender age of nineteen, but stuff like this drives me crazy!!
/rant

[33girl]

^^That honestly sounds like someone who doesn't have English as their first language.

Or else they just grabbed sentences off the internet and did cut & paste.

[xomanadaxo]

It's his first language. And he's a communication major. Which is scary.