A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

textspeak

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Texting (7/28)

I’ll admit, I’m a texter.

In this day and age, it’s hard not to be. But I’m not afraid of a phone call or anything like that. And I’ve actually witnessed people texting each other, when they could have walked 250 feet just to talk.

Sheesh!

As technology continues to grow, texting and other forms of communications will obviously increase. This makes it harder for the face-to-face meetings to still happen.

I’m not as worried about the texting as I am about how it’s making our nation (and the world, for that matter) dumber.

Yes, I said it.

How do I mean this? Allow me to make it a bit easier for you to understand, if you’re a texter.

Texter 1: ?4U

Texter 2: sup

Texter 1: R u readin this blog?

Texter 2: yeh. dood is cr8Z

Texter 1: its stoopid

Texter 2: YOLO

Honestly, that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense. I say that because I don’t know all the texting lingo of today’s generation. There are too many abbreviated words and phrases. I’ve had to ask people what the hell they were talking about during some exchanges.

Tap, tap, tapping away! (photo courtesy greyerbaby on MorgueFile)

I’m old school, I guess.

When I text, I type out full words. The only time I don’t is if my iPhone has decided it knows a better word than I am typing. At that point, auto correct will do something stupid. Then I have to type it all over to make it right.

I never use the normal “shortcuts,” such as “2, U, R, 4” etc. It’s lazy.

And, it becomes the norm for the younger generation. When they do all that “tap, tap, tap” conversations, it becomes part of their vocabulary. Though I use the term in online discussions, how many times have you heard somebody say “LOL” out loud? Seriously? Or “OMG.”

Come on, people.

But this gets worse. I swear.

I’ve taught at the college level before. I was an adjunct instructor, doing several freshman composition classes. This is something I hope to do again sometime as it’s a really refreshing job. I truly loved it. But it was also maddening at times.

I actually had to put something in the syllabus about using texting lingo. In fact, I noted that if I saw any of this in a paper, it would immediately get an F. I would stop reading at that point and fail the paper.

It happened several times, too. Some people had it happen to them more than once.

When typing a paper, I can kind of understand the mistake one time. And, usually, it didn’t hurt them that bad because I would often drop a person’s lowest grade. So, in the end, it was my hope they learned from that mistake.

But, I actually had more than one person turn in an in-class assignment — so handwritten — with text lingo.

Should I use it? Yes… yes I should. OMG!! Like guys, 4 real?

ARGH!

The best was when they would get the paper back and see that giant F. The looks on their face when they skimmed and saw why they got that grade. One paper I was grading was excellent. And it was well on its way to being a really good grade. Then it slipped in. A giant “U.”

I shook my head.

I have no issues with people texting and having fun with it for communication. Heck, even the shortcuts I can live with (though it still bothers me) when I receive a text.

But in the real world? Nah.

When questioned about my policy by several students, I defended it easily enough. I told them in this situation, you just get an F. And, if you only do it once (several of them needed two or three Fs to realize I wasn’t kidding), it doesn’t hurt you that bad. However, do it in the real world and see what happens.

Imagine putting something like this in a cover letter?

“I would luv 2 work 4 ure company cause i think i can do what u need done.”

I’m pretty sure I know where that cover letter and resume would (hopefully) end up. Who knows though? In this day and age, you never can tell. People’s eyes go glossing over things and maybe something would be missed.

I’ll keep fighting the good fight. Alas, in the end, it may be a losing battle. Only time will tell.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

R u 4 real?

Ugh.

When I was an adjunct instructor at a local college, I detested when students used textspeak.

U. u’re. U R kewl. Y? Y r u 2 kewl?4 real!

Get the picture?

I got so annoyed with it that I gave something at the beginning of the semester for them to see how silly it can look when written.

There is something like 100 errors in this little “story,” that I wrote. But that also includes bad spacing, punctuation, spelling and capitalization as well as silly grammar mistakes.

I submit this wonder to you now:

So, r u ready to rite this semester?

this class will require alot of writing, so u need 2 come 2 class and pay attenshun.

Details r things u need 2 work on. remember that u r graded 4 every thing u hand in. this is u’re work and what u will be graded on.

so when i wuz reading the cyllabus i was so like u have got 2 be kiddin me. but i kno that i have 2 write in i will do it my way.

but OMG, remember that u have 2 write in english !

that means proper puncuation , spelling; n nething else. so nvm the crazy txt talk or IM with my freinds. That iz SO lame. but thats what I have 2 do i guess. lol.

btw, it wouldnt b good 2 put this off 4 2nite as if u hand this in i  b all like wtf n u will fail it 2moro. 🙂

See how silly that is?

The amazing part was how many items were picked out by the students. Even the smallest errors were figured out by someone. I loved it! I then, always, followed that up with noting that if these items were in a paper, it would be an automatic F. I wouldn’t tolerate it because it’s not an acceptable way of writing, especially in a college paper.

After we did a day or two of grammar, I gave a quiz. One of the questions is as follows:

What will happen if a student uses the following “words” in a story: u, r, 2, u’re, etc.

  1. points deducted
  2. Given a star for good work
  3. Fail the paper
  4. A high five

People actually got it wrong. Seriously.

Considering I didn’t teach a class this past semester, why do I bring this up now?

Because I’ve seen it more and more in posts on Facebook. On Twitter. On blogs.

Everywhere.

It’s ridiculous. Some of the people I’ve seen do it on Facebook are educated people. I don’t use these things anywhere. Not texting. Not on Twitter. Not on Facebook. I’ll use a “hahaha” or a smiley in an instant message, but it’s hard to convey how you feel or if you are laughing in other ways.

It’s lazy and it looks stupid.

Facebook is the worst offender. To a point, I can understand on Twitter with it being 144 or fewer characters. But even then… do more than one Tweet! Texts just make me scream. There are some reporters for big papers I follow who do it in Tweets, however, and it drives me nuts.

So, I’ll end with this — srsly ppl, think b4 u rite silly things n look all stoopid. That wuld b gr8. K thanx bye.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.