Textspeak

Robert Skinner 4-27-10 Atkins English 101 Textspeak: A Challenging New Language I believe that Textspeak began to evolve as a sort of a pseudo language in the 1990s, when the internet chat rooms began to grow in popularity. Later in 2002, with the introduction of text messaging, Textspeak was redefined in order to meet the constraints of most text messaging systems (241, 244.4). As Textspeak becomes more widely accepted and used, the ambiguity of it will continue to frustrate both the senders and recipients of these messages. The burden of clear communication rests solely on the shoulders of the sender of a text message. The sender is responsible for the message’s context such as tone, urgency, and the receivers ease of understanding the text message. While using Textspeak, the sender of a message does not have the advantage of personal traits that a face-to-face conversation would posses, such as, voice tone and body language. It is quite possible that an absence of these traits have ended many relationships, because a message was taken out of context by the recipient of a poorly written message. A message written in excitement may be done in all capital letters. However, all capital letters can also express anger. In his essay Virtually Speaking, David crystal states, “No texter is entirely consistent, and no two texters use identical conventions”(245.11). Because of this, when using Textspeak, a text message sender needs to take care that the text message he is sending is written in a way, that the text message receiver is able to understand. While composing the text message, the sender needs to be aware of this, so that there is no time wasted writing duplicate text messages in a more clear and understandable language. While multitasking, a texter may face at least a couple of problems, which might occur. First being, if he is exchanging text messages with multiple people at the same time, the text messages that he received and who sent them may become confused and mixed up. Resulting in a possible text message being sent to the wrong person, which could cause turmoil in a friendship. Also, as I have seen with some of my fellow students, they use text messaging while in class. They probably also send text messages while at work. Obviously using this new form of communication can be detrimental to ones grades and it could also put their careers in jeopardy. Yet, still another challenge Textspeak may pose for a person using this new slang language is exactly that. It is a slang language. There just is absolutely no place for Textspeak in the business and professional worlds. If I were to see Textspeak in my doctor’s notes or inside my legal briefs, I would surely be looking for a new doctor or attorney. Just as with the more traditional spoken slang; Textspeak belongs mostly between peers. Unlike the senders, the recipients are solely at the mercy of the sender when it comes to challenges that Textspeak may have. Though many of the challenges may be similar, they affect the receiver differently than they affect the sender. First the recipient of a text message composed in Textspeak must foremost learn the new language. Unlike languages similar to English or American Sign Language, Textspeak is entirely composed of slang. There are no rules. Capital letters are used as effect instead as sentence beginnings. Punctuation marks are also often foregone or used as different functions (244.8). Letters will be left out entirely and there will also be multiple letter combinations, which have the same meanings. Such as Crystal states, “Thanks can be “THNX,” “THX,” “TX,” or “TNX.” The ambiguity this void of rules causes, forces the recipients of these text messages to learn a slightly different language for everyone who sends the recipient a text message in Textspeak. The text message computer servers, which are operated by the cellular providers, also pose challenges to the recipients. If the system is down or even just running a little slow; which they are known to do periodically, a recipient of a text message may have a delay in actually receiving a text message. This delay could be detrimental to an urgent text message where time is of the essence. Then there is also the benefit of face-to-face and over the phone conversations. Textspeak loses the body language and the voice tone benefits to communicating. Without these benefits, the recipient of text messages may not be able to distinguish the difference of important speech signals such as, anger vs. joking. In the infancy of this new language, Textspeak posses a vast amount of challenges on it’s users, both senders and recipients. As Textspeak continues to grow in popularity, and also with the constant technological advances, these challenges will also evolve, and continue to confuse and frustrate its users. Work Cited Crystal, David. “Virtually Speaking.” Exploring Language. 12th ed. New York. Longman, 2010. 241-247: Print. .