Down with text talk.
Submitted by Faithy.

You see it everywhere you go on the internet. It seems to pop out at you like a badly dressed prom date that has a booger hanging from his or her nose. No matter how many times you scrub your eyes, the image somehow never leaves. When you think you’ve finally removed it from your mind, you click on another link and WHAMMO, there it is again. What on Earth could I be talking about? I’m describing the seemingly growing movement of laziness in regards to “txt” talking. You’ve all seen the “Save the Vowel Movement” banners all over AL and I’m sure those with half a brain have actually read them, but have you taken a moment to dwell on what it truly means?

“I am anti- ‘txt talk.’ I support good grammar. I am apart of the ‘Save the Vowels’ movement. For your sanity and mine, type out your DAMN words. Thank you.”

Come on people it takes an extra point one second to press the other two letters to make “your” instead of just typing “ur.” That’s the same for all the other words people have attempted to “abbreviate” in order to make their lives “easier.” Let’s take a stand and stop being so DAMN lazy. I once read an article which spoke about how students now-a-days are writing not only their notes and hand-written assignments in “txt talk” but computer produced reports. That was the most depressing thing I had read in a while. Has society gone down that badly that our school systems are being affected by the way people “speak” on forums, e-mails, and instant messages?

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Of those that I have spoken to, they agree that this way of typing has become an issue not just on certain forums, but throughout the entire internet, which is sad. I’m going to quote some posts from different forums so that we can not only get an opinion from a fellow ALer [myself] but from others as well.

“I've loved this thing [“Save the Vowel” movement] from the moment I heard about it. I think it's a great attempt to rid the world of half-baked attempts at the English language (which I hold in very high regard.)

Those text-talkers suffer from IVS: Irritable Vowel Syndrome where they pour their excremented vowels on the blackboard of the internet!!! (It's actually a very graphic metaphor. Don't think too hard onto it.)

Yay for proper English on the internet!”

“People who can not spell scare me.
Those who do not even dare to use proper grammar when they know it quite well annoy me.
Those who are just too damn lazy should burn for the horrors that they are committing upon the earth with how they speak.
I may be laughed at here at school and work and nearly everywhere.
However I am proud to speak well.
I am also proud to spell correctly.
Most of all I am glad to be around people who prefer to do the same.
For if we were all meant to speak in text talk, then why would there be correct ways to spell in the first place.”

“Indeed, English is the most descriptive and accurate modern language. If one used to the full words available in our lexicon for speech and writing, there would be no ambiguities.”

“A different form of English? Impressive?! No less? Bring forth the royal spoon and let the gagging commence!

Mankind as a whole is dumber because of peeps like Trevor X. If anyone's new to e-mail, it's him.”

Now… in order to understand where that last quote came from, I must subject you all to the pain and agony I was recently plagued with.

Example X: i saw ur message let me know where you are.
Rebuttal: Ah, I see. I prefer one that can type in complete sentences and use capital letters as well as proper punctuation. I also prefer a person that can type out his words, so yeah...
Example X: you must be new to sending e-mails ( New to sending e-mails? O.o; Riiight)
Rebuttal: Umm, no. I'm just intelligent and prefer people that can type that way, sorry.
Example X: e-mails use a different form of english you soon get used to it (They do?! Holy shit!)
Rebuttal: I don't think you understand me. I don't like people that can't type out words, e-mail or not. Sorry, but that's where I stand.
Example X: then you wont impress anyone on e-mail you need to understand the language
Rebuttal: My friends all use the intelligent form of writing, even while e-mailing back and forth. If you are too lazy to do so, then stop e-mailing me.
Example X: youre wasting my time bye

Now tell me… Is there really a “new language” for e-mail? I mean seriously… does humankind need to get any lamer? Stop being a douche bag and type out your words, use proper punctuation and show people you’re worth something…!

“I don't mind English grammar and spelling problems when you're from, say, Japan or China (or another country where English isn't even a Second language), although it does tick me off, I can't go off on you for it, because it's not your primary language.

Then you have the people who have the native language of English and they purely suck at it, either they're incompetent, completely stupid, ignorant or don't give a damn. These get to me, and this is what the future of the nation looks like:

"0MAGAWD!!!111 I cent' belife et!!!!!!111 I wuld liek 2 thk teh Nayshon 4 el...elecd....elictrefiiign meh 2 offece!!111 Tere iz kno geetar pozishon en teh wurld I wuld hve wnatd!"

I'll be shaking those brain cells out later on, when my brain finally lets the dead ones detach as it re-routes some of my intelligence to make up for the massive loss from forcing myself to type that out.”

Please people, I’m pleading with you. Do us all a favor and type out your damn words!