Fifty Four

wt if i woz 2 strt riting lk ths in mi blogs wud it p u off?

Well it would me and it does when other people do it. The question of “text speak” and the proliferation of abbreviations is one that has irked me for some time. I am aware it has been the focus of many blogs / articles / heated debates over the past few years, but this is my blog, so this is my take on it. It has risen up in my mind at this time because of a comment someone made on Facebook  Yes I know Facebook it not a pillar of virtue when it comes to correct spelling and grammar, that is part of my point but I will come to it later. The comment in question was made after a misspelling and a correction, whether the misspelling was intentional or a typo is immaterial right now. The comment was:

“I knew what you meant, you spell it how you want”

Well…If only someone had told me that was how the English language worked now!

Phew! I was worried there for a second, but it is ok, there are still rules and official spellings and such exciting things as apostrophes and semi-colons to be used when using the English language as a means of communication. The problem is, it appears there are more and more people out there who either don’t know the rules or don’t care about them. I know languages develop, I am aware that we no longer use the English of Chaucer or Shakespeare but this is no excuse to throw out the rules (paper or electronic) and accept a free for all of poor spelling spattered liberally with random punctuation or, even worse, no punctuation.

Just in case people decide that I am somewhat sanctimonious and deserve to have the quirks and foibles of my writing style deconstructed, I am not claiming to be perfect. I am merely stating that there are rules to be followed and they are not optional.

Text speak, born of necessity, has now become an unnecessary annoyance in the world of smart phones, with unlimited free texts and a wonderful process called concatenation which can reconstruct text messages that stray over the 160 character limit of old. Don’t get me wrong, one or two abbreviations here and there do not do anyone too much harm, but relentless shortening of words not only detracts from your message but causes people to want to pull your arms off and beat you with them.

I fear I am loosing some of my eloquence and descending into mindlessly violent imagery so I will conclude this blog here.