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NAPLES — The headline, for those of us who still believe our living language, English, should not change quite so fast, translates as “Texting: Readers’ Reactions.
There, that’s not so hard, is it? Nor is normal English obsolete. Not just yet. At least that’s what some readers think.
Millions of America’s adolescents, teens and 20-somethings apparently are text messaging their ways through life, their thumbs growing outsized as they poke at cell phones while their vocabularies and attention spans shrink.
It’s not the end of thoughtful, civilized discourse but let’s face it — Shakespeare may have ended up a mere journeyman wordsmith if he had written Hamlet’s famous quote as, “2B or nt 2B; dats d ?”
Some of Shakespeare’s language of 1601 is lost on us 21st Century readers, but boy, would he scratch his very high forehead even more at the texting language of today.
One reader of my recent column on the oddities of text talk says I’m out of touch, that only a “small subset” of people use text lingo. He says most texters use standard English. I think my subset is bigger than his subset.
Example: My latest AT&T cell phone bill came with a flyer suggesting, “It’s easy, give it a try.” AT&T says “63 percent of parents … believe text messaging helped improve communications with their children.”
The brochure includes a pop quiz on what text blather means in real English. “P911” means “parent alert.” “*VIN” is “starving.” “DBL84DNR” means “Don’t be late for dinner.”
My Treo “smart” cell phone contains a list of one-touch phrases I can tap to send such memorable words as, ”Can you talk now?” and “Can’t talk now.”
So what does any of this mean in the real world, in business or on the job? I got some great examples of the impact of our emerging texting-e-mail-Facebook-wassup culture from Kristen Coury, artistic director and producer for our Gulfshore Playhouse.
Coury sees close up the generational gap in communicating when she gets e-mail from actors hoping to land auditions for Gulfshore Playhouse productions.
“Right now I’m getting about 130 submissions a day,” Kristen says, “and I can tell the person’s age group just by reading the e-mails.
“The over-45s write like this: ‘Dear Miss Coury: I’d like to be considered for an audition for…’ and so on. ‘Sincerely,’ etc. It’s clear, proper, businesslike English.
“The under 30s write, ‘Hey Kristen sure wud like to audition for you guys thx…’ and they use no capital letters and no punctuation.”
Coury says it’s not just the language among her younger would-be stage stars.
“When we explain that auditions are three days, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., we’ll get such replies as, ‘hey I’d like to audition the 16th and 2pm is best for me’
“Often, the younger ones come to audition in sloppy clothes with bad personal hygiene, messy hair, out of shape,” Kristen observes. “I find this whole trend appalling.”
Coury says that if two actors competing for a part are equal in other ways, she’ll choose the one who shows up caring about the impression they give.
“And writing with proper punctuation and speaking with correct grammar goes a long way with me.”
I’m guessing Shakespeare would agree and he knew a bit about showbiz too.
Contact Don Farmer at don@donfarmer.com.
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What happened to talking on cell phones???? Which is bad enough out in public.
#1 Posted by suntan on September 5, 2008 at 5:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As the number of cel phones with full QWERTY keyboards grows, I've been hoping there would be a return to something closer to proper English. Trying to type through the numeric keyboard can be a tedious process. (I've rarely done it, but when I have I got tired of it quickly.) There can also be message size limits in many devices.
#2 Posted by pauls on September 5, 2008 at 7:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If a literate person desires to send text and email messages in proper language using proper grammar and punctuation, it is easily possible. Unless illiterate, the others have simply intentionally chosen to use improper language, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, which among other things can cause a message to be misinterpreted by the recipient. Perhaps the individuals in each group also verbally communicate the same way they text and email, which is highly probable and could be good or bad depending on the group.
#3 Posted by esprit on September 6, 2008 at 9:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How on earth does the NDN justify the prominant space they waste on this guy week after week in the editorial section? We have serious problems to discuss. We have pressing issues like the increasing unemployment rate and daunting foreclosure rates. Our educational system is in the muck; lack of affordable health care is a key discussion point this election; there is no shortage of intelligence stimulating ideas we could kick around.
Put Farmer in the entertainment section and get something worthy of our time and brains in his place.
#4 Posted by conchsoup on September 6, 2008 at 4:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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