A trendy smartphone in the hands of a kid
is now becoming a common sight. The young ones today surely know a lot more
about apps and their workings than their counterparts of previous generations.
Phones, of course, aren’t just for entertainment and become the central mode of
communication as relationships develop. Keeping tabs on all your near and dear
ones via your phone involves some serious texting; constantly moving fingers
over the touch-screen keypad require shortcuts and short forms and this has
given rise to unique SMS lingo for instant messaging.
The main benefit of this lingo is that
three letter acronyms can convey a message instead of a whole sentence. But a
receiver without prior knowledge of the code is literally lost for words.
Adding to the cons is the messed up vocabulary. Rather than increasing their
word bank at that age, youngsters are opting for shortcuts which can ruin their
language learning abilities. Spellings are going for a toss as no one wants to
know the full word, let alone spell it correctly. Even examination marks are
lost for wrong spellings as teachers try to decipher the words. Punctuation
marks don’t even exist except for the exclamation mark and question mark which
are dutifully added for exaggerated effect.
Instant messaging is a great tool for
social communication, but it can play havoc with grammar.
