It's on the increase, no doubt about it, countless threads on here cropping up now and its really starting to get on my wick! I think its lazy, hard to read and just plain daft.

Is it becoming socially acceptable to use, as it seems more and more people these days are using it. I'll freely admit to using it on mobile phones... but on t'internet! Never.

What gets me is give the person a pen and paper, would they write in text speak? Probably not, so how does the use of a keyboard change their use of language.

 

Petty I know, but I don't use it on texts either. I really do find it more difficult to read and assume others will too!

I had an application form recently for a post I advertised and it came back filled in (badly) with 80% "txt spk". I didn't invite him for an interview....

Do you not think that in a few years it'll just become acceptable?  

Just thinking a little more about this - realised there's a section in the forum rules about creative spelling:

Please try to practise general netiquette. What does this mean? Well not writing your posts or their subjects ALL IN CAPITALS. This is not only annoying, but it makes you look like you've got some kind of anger management problem. Also practice good English, and refrain from using ‘txt’ speak. You're using a keyboard to type with, not a mobile phone key pad.

We've never had to enforce this but I can see a point coming where it will become an issue... 

mclannahan:

Petty I know, but I don't use it on texts either. I really do find it more difficult to read and assume others will too!

I had an application form recently for a post I advertised and it came back filled in (badly) with 80% "txt spk". I didn't invite him for an interview....

Do you not think that in a few years it'll just become acceptable?  

I dearly hope not - some say the English language is changing but I fee like its being eroded away, slowly but surely.

I'm concerned its making this forum sometimes hard to read - and the information base it represents is being damaged as a result. 

Your using a keyboard to type, not a mobile phone key pad.

Tut tut tut 

Oops.. corrected

Personally I can't stand the txt spk either lyk

It makes the individual creating the post appear as a bit of a dim wit. Bad spelling and grammar I ignore, as even I'm not great with general grammar, but the txt speak is plain awful. 

Strange to think that it would become the accepted way of communicating.  I openly admit to using some abreviations in text, however,  only if the total number of characters exceeds the limit for 1 message. Hahaha, Im tight... so I go back and shorten some of the words, but only VERY obvious things...  Its quicker to text using predictive if you ask me.

Things like 'dats' and 'cuz' really get on my nerves. They are more about trying to be cool rather than shortening ... the first one is on letter shorter thant Thats and just put 'cos and I dont think many people will have an issue?

If you ask me though, with all the european laws of human rights and freedom to express opinions etc the do-gooders will state a case for this rediculous way of communicating to become accepable.  HOWEVER, surely it will have to be standardized first because there are so many variations of words.  Its like aplpying for a job with your C.V written in german or spanish and just assuming the person can read what you are saying... clearly its an issue that needs to be resolved by the government.  The fundamentals must start in the Education system Mr Blair can be so proud of

Get him out and lets get back to Mrs Thatchers ways hahaha

I dont understand why people do it using a keyboard. I find it easier and quicker to type the whole word out than i do to keep abreviating.

Tim Sims:

Strange to think that it would become the accepted way of communicating.  I openly admit to using some abreviations in text, however,  only if the total number of characters exceeds the limit for 1 message. Hahaha, Im tight... so I go back and shorten some of the words, but only VERY obvious things...  Its quicker to text using predictive if you ask me.

Things like 'dats' and 'cuz' really get on my nerves. They are more about trying to be cool rather than shortening ... the first one is on letter shorter thant Thats and just put 'cos and I dont think many people will have an issue?

I'm the same, text messages cost me 10p a go, so it's prudent to be economical with your words!

Shortening words with apostrophes isn't of the same ilk if you ask me - it actually make for a more readable experience, as it can sometimes be used to convey a regional twang in a good way  

i never use it on internet or even text messages unless i really have to (i.e. save a couple of characters on message)

i use a little when i txt on my phone but that is it. and yes sometimes i accidently slip some into this forum but its just a case of missing a G of theend of a word nothing major. it really enoys me and the other forum i go on.they have banned it and will have a moan/edit your post if you use it.

my mates mom is a high school teacher andshe was telling me hoe sometimes she will be reading through there work and they are spelling things in the so called txt language she then asks them about it and they think thats how to spell things.its like its taking over peoples heads ands pushing good old queens english out of there heads. thats really bad.

It really does annoy me, such as on myspace, when i see people of my own age writing like retards. Thing is, the people who write in txt spk often their grammar and English is really poor anyway, so i think theres a link between people who write in txt spk and people who generally find it hard to string a sentence together. I do it on my mobile as much as the next man, which is acceptible, as you said it saves money!

But to do it typing on a keyboard is just retarded. As i said, i've done so many essays/coursework/ etc thats typed in my time i am a really fast typer and just find it quicker just to type proper sentences out than keep abreviating.

 

U iz just not down wit da kidz innit. 

i voted doesn't bother me, sometimes its easy to read and i dont have a problem with it.

there are some words which i can't understand but generally im fine with it.

i once saw a paragraph in which i think the first letter was swapped with the end letter in everyword and apparently the human brain doesnt read the whole word and can easily recognise all the words. so it this must mean that 'txt talk' can possible be translated with ease

 

I will not even so much as bother scanning something on here in text speak - I don't want to waste my time on illiterates.

Sure, it's less formal on here, so you type how you talk - this allows for an accent or personality to be conveyed, but I don't know anyone who speaks in such a lazy and incomprehensible manner to justify writing in that crap.... I group them with the idiots who are unable to articulate their thoughts and will just resort to using their fists out of frustration.

You can't even argue that it's faster to type, as anyone who can touch type knows it's really hard to mis-spell something that has a natural keystroke... surely you'd be all pointy fingers plonking away like a child?

 

i voted doesn't bother me, sometimes its easy to read and i dont have a problem with it.

there are some words which i can't understand but generally im fine with it.

i once saw a paragraph in which i think the first letter was swapped with the end letter in everyword and apparently the human brain doesnt read the whole word and can easily recognise all the words. so it this must mean that 'txt talk' can possible be translated with ease

I remember, that was on an email which got banded around a while back. It proved that the human brain only looks at the letters in the middle of a word, and starting and ending letters are filtered out so the word is correctly understood.

While thats interesting to note, I don't think it extends to txt spk, where words are broken down into their phonetic sounding contruction and shortened for some god knows reason....

I find it difficult to read - whereas the above mentioned study had no mental impact on my tiny little mind! 

God their allowing it to be used in exams in NZ!

 

Tabs:

God their allowing it to be used in exams in NZ!

 

 

What did I tell you... its inevitable

I fink im gun jump on da band wagen lyk.... if u cnt beat em join em

Tim Sims:

Tabs:

God their allowing it to be used in exams in NZ!

 

 

What did I tell you... its inevitable

I fink im gun jump on da band wagen lyk.... if u cnt beat em join em

 

Mikedav:

U iz just not down wit da kidz innit. 

Text speak on forums makes me wish there was a device that allows you to punch people in the head through your screen.

LMAO!  Mike, you just echoed my feelings entirely

I agree with using shortened phonetic spelling on a mobile phone as 160 chars isn't always quite enough for what you need to say and it can end up costing you a small fortune.

When I see 'txt speak' used on forums, blogs etc I immediately make a decision about the person who has typed the entry and that decision is not very flattering.
I assume that either they do not have the intelligence to grammatise correctly OR they are just too lazy to grammatise correctly. Either way it speaks volumes about the person behind the text. Half witted and lazy usually springs to mind.

It is just as easy to grammatise and spell correctly as it is to use txt speak so if someone uses txt speak deliberately to sound cool then again, that speaks volumes about that person's social standing.
If you are content to allow the world to see that you make a conscious decision to misspell and grammatise incorrectly then don't expect the world in general to treat you with respect and as an equal.

In particular the opinion that a person generates from seeing 'txt speak' is that (because of the two reasons above) is that of a lower than average intelligence level. The knock on effect of this on a forum such as this is that your comments/threads are instantly less credible and informed in the eyes of the reader. I.E In a nutshell people are less likely to take you seriously if you cannot string a coherent sentence together properly spelled and grammatised.

When all you have to make a decision about someone are the words that they type then these assumptions are easily made.

 

Tabs:

Tim Sims:

Tabs:

God their allowing it to be used in exams in NZ!

 

 

What did I tell you... its inevitable

I fink im gun jump on da band wagen lyk.... if u cnt beat em join em

 

 

Hahaha... ma name iz maximuz simz, leeeda ov da british leejon in da mk4's... BUT I tek it bk

I'll will serve you as a loyal soldier of the correct gammar association *bows on one knee* I pledge my allegiance to Caeser Tabs

Tim Sims:

Hahaha... ma name iz maximuz simz, leeeda ov da british leejon in da mk4's... BUT I tek it bk

I'll will serve you as a loyal soldier of the correct gammar association *bows on one knee* I pledge my allegiance to Caeser Tabs

Ok I am now self appointed teacher on this thread and there were three mistakes in Tims quote alone!

I will
grammar
Caesar

"Respect" *clicks fingers gangsta styleee

don't forget your apostrophe though Stewart

Stewart:

When I see 'txt speak' used on forums, blogs etc I immediately make a decision about the person who has typed the entry and that decision is not very flattering.
I assume that either they do not have the intelligence to grammatise correctly OR they are just too lazy to grammatise correctly. Either way it speaks volumes about the person behind the text. Half witted and lazy usually springs to mind.

It is just as easy to grammatise and spell correctly as it is to use txt speak so if someone uses txt speak deliberately to sound cool then again, that speaks volumes about that person's social standing.
If you are content to allow the world to see that you make a conscious decision to misspell and grammatise incorrectly then don't expect the world in general to treat you with respect and as an equal.

In particular the opinion that a person generates from seeing 'txt speak' is that (because of the two reasons above) is that of a lower than average intelligence level. The knock on effect of this on a forum such as this is that your comments/threads are instantly less credible and informed in the eyes of the reader. I.E In a nutshell people are less likely to take you seriously if you cannot string a coherent sentence together properly spelled and grammatised.

When all you have to make a decision about someone are the words that they type then these assumptions are easily made.

 

Comppletelly agrree wit dat innit

Tim Sims:

"Respect" *clicks fingers gangsta styleee

don't forget your apostrophe though Stewart

Darn! Well, we all make mistakes (Said the Darlek climbing off the dustbin).

Can we also start sentences with a capital and end with a full stop please.

This will probably annoy some people, but the MK4 Golf is getting older and therefore cheaper. Younger people buy older cars as do more mature people from different social classes who are sometimes less well educated. These people are more likely to use this type of "slang".

Obviously this is not a general/hard fast rule and therefore by no means covers every single MK4 driver, but you can see this clearly on this forum that text talk is rarely used on the MK5 part of the forum, but more regularly on the MK4 parts.

Stewart:

Tim Sims:

"Respect" *clicks fingers gangsta styleee

don't forget your apostrophe though Stewart

Darn! Well, we all make mistakes (Said the Darlek climbing off the dustbin).

Can we also start sentences with a capital and end with a full stop please.

Yes we can!

danw19:

Stewart:

When I see 'txt speak' used on forums, blogs etc I immediately make a decision about the person who has typed the entry and that decision is not very flattering.
I assume that either they do not have the intelligence to grammatise correctly OR they are just too lazy to grammatise correctly. Either way it speaks volumes about the person behind the text. Half witted and lazy usually springs to mind.

It is just as easy to grammatise and spell correctly as it is to use txt speak so if someone uses txt speak deliberately to sound cool then again, that speaks volumes about that person's social standing.
If you are content to allow the world to see that you make a conscious decision to misspell and grammatise incorrectly then don't expect the world in general to treat you with respect and as an equal.

In particular the opinion that a person generates from seeing 'txt speak' is that (because of the two reasons above) is that of a lower than average intelligence level. The knock on effect of this on a forum such as this is that your comments/threads are instantly less credible and informed in the eyes of the reader. I.E In a nutshell people are less likely to take you seriously if you cannot string a coherent sentence together properly spelled and grammatised.

When all you have to make a decision about someone are the words that they type then these assumptions are easily made.

 

Comppletelly agrree wit dat innit

Dan, out of interest, why did you change your post from a correctly formatted sentence to umm, something else?

The reverse is also true as well,sometime ago I had to speak to a teenager on Messenger that communicated in a language that is officially classed by language experts as "Total gibberish",and he actually couldn't undertstand some longhand plain English I typed,I gave up in the end trying to communicate on his level.This is maybe a bit melodramatic,but I see this getting so bad  that we stand the danger of people who use this sort of thing exclusively not being able to read danger or warning signs.
It's easy I guess to blame the education system,but maybe they actually find this sort of language easier to learn than PROPER English?

Chris.

I have to say i do use txt speak on msn and on the phone.. but never on the forum.. unless sometimes i make a mistake whilst im on msn and posting a reply on here at the same time lol

 

Sat  

Look back at Shakespeare and see how the language was then and then look back 15-20 years ago 'when I were a lad' (pre txt & mobile phones) and see how it's changed. Now, from then until the present day, due to mobiles & texts it's changed dramatically again. It's inevitable really that yes, txt spk will become the norm. I hate it, and rarely use it whilst texting but I think we have to accept that it will happen

in fact I hardly ever text people, I'll just ring. I can touch type pretty quickly and it's just a bit too frustratingly slow texting on a small keypad

Stewart:

Dan, out of interest, why did you change your post from a correctly formatted sentence to umm, something else?

Vain attempt at irony, not very good effort i must admit. 

cant stand it why shorten words on the forum its not like its costs and we are limited to the amount of words ..

Also like to add with most of the kids now adays owning mobile phones and using this short had style of text messaging

NO WONDER THEY CAN'T SPELL CORRECTLY ........

oh and i have voted

Its one of the main reasons I don't visit this forum on a regular basis anymore.
I just don't understand the whole concept of it all, spotty 18 year old sat in his bedroom thinking he's a bad ass illiterate gangster? (not just through text speak but other reworking of words).
Sorry, won't be wasting my time reading or replying to trash like that :(
 

GaryM:

Its one of the main reasons I don't visit this forum on a regular basis anymore.
I just don't understand the whole concept of it all, spotty 18 year old sat in his bedroom thinking he's a bad ass illiterate gangster? (not just through text speak but other reworking of words).
Sorry, won't be wasting my time reading or replying to trash like that :(
 

Im 18 and i think im a bad ass gangsta joke lol.. i can see exactly where your coming from and have even noticed myself that a lot of the original regulars when i joined up dont leave many messages now. Ive gone out of the mk4 scene and got some slippers and a pipe to match my new car lol..

 

Sat  

nosaj:

cant stand it why shorten words on the forum its not like its costs and we are limited to the amount of words ..

Also like to add with most of the kids now adays owning mobile phones and using this short had style of text messaging

NO WONDER THEY CAN'T SPELL CORRECTLY ........

oh and i have voted

That post must've taken you ages J, you're typos and spelling mistakes are normally worse than mine (I had to be sooo careful typing this line!)

Anyway, an excellent post.  Tabs, you'd have a large backing if you do end up enforcing no txt spk.  I hate it.  I'm not even as old as quite a few people in this thread who have pretty hard hitting opinions (of which I agree), but I don't even accept it in texts, let alone on msn or the forums.  I don't mind the odd word here and there, mainly as I don't notice until it's too late.  I know there's also posts on here where people have had an absolute verbal beating from several of us, for using text speak as well.  Ooops, shame...

If I get a text though that's all shortened gibberish, they either don't get graced with a reply, or get something back obscenely telling them to talk english or f... jog on!  I think I put the new girl in the office nose out of joint the other week not long after she started... She's 18 and text me to tell me she'd be late into the office, adn got a text back telling her i have no idea what she's on about and have a go in english.  Having asked me what I meant when she got in, I asked if that's how she'd written her english exam.... Then the penny finally dropped. 

To me it's just lazy and irksome, does nothing for anybody (except textaholics who have a budget admittedly!).  I used to text like mad and i've NEVER used txt spk, althoguh admitedly one2one and then Orange did rake a fortune off me .  I guess I noticed it (txtspk on t'rise) mainly at the time when MSN Messenger REALLY kicked off, and text bundles were becoming the norm.

There's a certain irony though.  3 years ago I wouldn't be acught dead on MSN Messenger, until in the end, all theo ld things I used (IRC, ICQ, etc) were empty, and I had no choice.  Now you'll catch me saying lol, pmsl and rofl far too much on the ruddy thing.  God did I abhor that back then.

I suspect there's a certain amount of fate and "crap will happen" and it'll just get worse.  But this one I'll fight until I'm deaf if I have to, I hate it. 

 

Oh and Tabs: 

Tabs:

I dearly hope not - some say the English language is changing but I fee like its being eroded away, slowly but surely.

Cracking bit of irony there mate

C 

GaryM:

Its one of the main reasons I don't visit this forum on a regular basis anymore.
I just don't understand the whole concept of it all, spotty 18 year old sat in his bedroom thinking he's a bad ass illiterate gangster? (not just through text speak but other reworking of words).
Sorry, won't be wasting my time reading or replying to trash like that :(
 

And here was me thinking it was because you have to wear that avatar for a year! Ha ha ha!

How are you anyway mate? (Sorry for going slightly off topic)

Lets just get one thing straight here, this has little to do with age, and everything to do with intelligence. Yes it is predominantly younger people who do it, but i'm 21, and i hate it, and i know people who do it in typing, and people who would never dream of it. The ones who would never do it  are a predominantly more intelligent than the ones who would. Quite frankly, people who type in txt spk are dumb and not well educated. If you can type fast or touch type like i can (and everyone my age should be able to do for christs sake) then you would have no need to type like that and more importantly, find it easier and quicker to type in standard long hand anyway. So we can only assume that people who type in txt spk cannot type fast or touch type (dont quite know the difference!)....this leads us to assume that they havent had much of an  education. Or alternatively, they go out of their way (ie, purposefully take longer to tye things) to type in txt spk because its cool to do so because thats how young people communicate electronically. Theres nothing cool about displaying the fact you're slightly retarded, illiterate and have never read a book in your life.

 

Tabs:

i voted doesn't bother me, sometimes its easy to read and i dont have a problem with it.

there are some words which i can't understand but generally im fine with it.

i once saw a paragraph in which i think the first letter was swapped with the end letter in everyword and apparently the human brain doesnt read the whole word and can easily recognise all the words. so it this must mean that 'txt talk' can possible be translated with ease

I remember, that was on an email which got banded around a while back. It proved that the human brain only looks at the letters in the middle of a word, and starting and ending letters are filtered out so the word is correctly understood.

While thats interesting to note, I don't think it extends to txt spk, where words are broken down into their phonetic sounding contruction and shortened for some god knows reason....

I find it difficult to read - whereas the above mentioned study had no mental impact on my tiny little mind! 

 I think it's the first and last letters that are in the right order,with the middle letters being jumbled up.

But yes,.BAN THEM, or edit there post's by adding wise cracks here and there.