LOL - It's no laughing matter.

LOL - It's no laughing matter.

"The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists."
 
The general impression found in the media today is that text language is wierd, and has been labelled 'a digital virus', 'foreign' and 'outlandish'. The introduction of new technologies and social networking sites has seen a new opening for 'text language'. It may seem like 'alien' language to me and you, practically throwing letters and numbers out there and hoping it makes sense. Though, some people seem to understand this gobbledegook and the phenomenon is becoming bigger and bigger. Whereas, the literary skills of our nation is suffering in the process.

According to David Crystal there has never been "a linguistic phenomenon which has aroused such curiosity, suspicion, fear, confusion, antagonism, fascination, excitement, and enthusiasm, all at once. And in such a short space of time."
 
The dialect includes hieroglyphs, abbreviations and a selection of face symbols… linguistically it is a mess which encourages poor spelling, reading and writing. The thing is, this mentally lazy and downright despicable phenomenon is cropping up in the most outrageous places - particularly school examinations, including English language GCSE. More shockingly, the other day I came across a prayer re-written in text language by Matthew Campbell. It included "&4give r sins" and "&ur cool 4 eva!" - not the most appropriate thing for a piece of religious text, right? I couldn't get far into the prayer, if you can still call it that, without feeling nauseous.

"The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation" states Katie Hafner in an article written for the New York Times.
 
Ever wondered why when using text language on a computer, for example Microsoft Word, it comes up with a red line under it? Because it's poor English, uncreative and extremely dull. It has been proven by researchers that people So next time you go to LOL, be sure to watch your literacy skills fly out the window…

 

By Courtney Honisett.