Has the "texting" craze made our children into the world's worst spellers?

[henryleslie]

If I have to read "dose" for does or "u" for you or any of that other texting crap I am gonna barf! There is even spell checker on Yahoo Answers, people! Use it!And to the under 20 set, YES I AM OLD!!! 39 to be exact. If you ever want to get a job and earn money to pay for that cell phone you text 1000 words a minute on, you will NEED to learn how to spell correctly!hugs & kisses: That was funny, but do not make me hunt you down and take your cell phone away!gigglebuster: I swear, you must be typing in Greek becasue I did not understand one thing you wrote.

[maddie]

"U""R" harsh lady, "LOL"i dnt tnk so, i tnk its "COOLIO"sorry, but really, give us teens a brake. LOL

[mystikalroze]

i m tnking dt u i5 b-n 2 hrsh on dem k1l)s b3c4a [_] 5e you cnt t@lk l1ke meh.PICK ME FOR BEST BECUASE OF MY UB3R TALKS

[justoverhere]

AMEN girlfriend. I get a headache reading some of these... and texting IS a huge disservice to our children. When they should be learning how to spell in order to get ahead in life, they are learning how to spell like an illiterate. Some of them make me scratch my head even... because dose and does have the SAME AMOUNT OF LETTERS... how is it a shortcut? It's only a shortcut to illiteracy.

[justoverhere]

Kids who are good readers will still be able to write properly. It's the ones who don't read and who spend more time texting their friends than studying who will be trouble.

[justoverhere]

Hi Maryam,My feeling is that you are correct in your assumption and frankly, some of the letters I read in YA make me wince.As a teacher I also notice a deal of dis-interest by some students, a lack of concern about the importance of spelling and grammar. Many can't structure a sentence unless it has a sprinkling of 'you know' and various other verbal crutches to support it. Notice I said, 'some students'. There are a great many students who apply themselves to their studies and make a great effort to do good work.Sadly, the problem is not particular to one country. I notice that Asian Students do not have the problems I mentioned above; they take great pride in learning all that is 'on offer' and I can only guess that is down to parental influence and encouragement.By the way, 39 is not old; you are chronologically gifted or challenged or both.Hang in there, who knows, there may be an educational revolution if enough educators get mad enough to say 'STOP' to this waste of resources.

[caledonia]

I usually text in correct spelling because for me texting in shortcuts makes me used to use it.
I also use text as a means of communication in my buy and sell business because I'm a single mom and that is only my source of income. So, I make sure that my clients understand my text.

[karan]

The things are made worst by social networking sites like facebook and twitter where chatting goes like this "r u thr","LOL" and "UB3R" and I think this should be stop by parents and make them to read the newspaper daily and tell them this speeling error surely affect them in the future studies and work.

[angie1976]

I don't even understand the appeal of texting. It takes three times the length of time to say something as it would over the phone, only over the phone, the person that you are speaking with can ask for clarification if they do not understand the language. There are a lot of abbreviations that I don't even understand.

As a side note, I think that the texting craze is starting to damage young people's interpersonal skills. They have difficulty speaking with people directly, because they have become used to texting on their own.

[TNShannon]

I think texting can be handy when you need to say something, but you can't do it where you are...for instance, I would rather not have a conversation while I'm sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office where everyone can hear me, but I can text and still get my message across to whoever I need to speak to.

The spelling thing, though...I don't do abbreviations. It just seems incredibly lazy. And I agree with angie1976 about the damage the texting craze might do to kids and their ability to communicate. I've seen kids sitting side-by-side and texting each other! I mean, whatever happened to good old-fashioned whispering and giggling?

But then again, it's not just the texting craze that presents a problem. It's the computer chat rooms, the shorthand that has become the norm, and the decline of handwriting skills as everyone (adults included) become more accustomed to the faster method of email and text.

What I wouldn't give to get a nice handwritten letter in the mail these days...