Comments on: Text Messaging as Toy or Tool http://blog.oup.com/2008/03/text_message/ Introducing brilliant authors to the blogosphere. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ypulse Quote: The ‘Texting Gap’ | Ypulse http://blog.oup.com/2008/03/text_message/comment-page-1/#comment-148833 Ypulse Quote: The ‘Texting Gap’ | Ypulse Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:26:05 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/2008/03/text_message/#comment-148833 [...] in Washington, DC., putting our concern about the "texting gap" into a global perspective. From the blog post: Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, text messaging by adolescents in the United States [...] [...] in Washington, DC., putting our concern about the “texting gap” into a global perspective. From the blog post: Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, text messaging by adolescents in the United States [...]

]]> By: Dr. Larry Rosen http://blog.oup.com/2008/03/text_message/comment-page-1/#comment-142332 Dr. Larry Rosen Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:05:14 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/2008/03/text_message/#comment-142332 Text messaging is an interesting part of this multitasking generation. In a recent study my colleagues Mark Carrier, Nancy Cheever and I asked more than 600 children, teens, and young adults to write a formal letter to a company complaining about a product that did not work and requesting assistance. Much to our dismay, we discovered that those "Net Geners" who used more language-based "textisms" in their daily IMing and text messaging -- acronyms (e.g., LOL, L8R), shortened words (tht for that), missing apostrophes (dont for don't) and lowercase i instead of uppercase I -- produced worse formal written letters than those who used fewer of these types of linguistic shortcuts (NOTE: they were not penalized for using textisms in their letters and the results factored out demographic differences including age and gender). However, the use of more contextual textisms -- smilies, accenting feelings or emotions using nontext characters (e.g., *hug*), or using capital letters to denote strong emotion(e.g., I AM ANGRY) -- was not related to writing ability. We are currently replicating these results and further testing the impact of textisms in a more informal writing exercise. Interestingly, outside of a few studies, we have found very little research in this area although media speculation about the impact of online communication has warned us of the impending demise of the English language due to the use of these non-English shortcuts. My colleagues and I look forward to any comments you might have about our work. My website -- www.Me-MySpace-and-I.com -- houses articles and summaries of much of our work. Text messaging is an interesting part of this multitasking generation. In a recent study my colleagues Mark Carrier, Nancy Cheever and I asked more than 600 children, teens, and young adults to write a formal letter to a company complaining about a product that did not work and requesting assistance. Much to our dismay, we discovered that those “Net Geners” who used more language-based “textisms” in their daily IMing and text messaging — acronyms (e.g., LOL, L8R), shortened words (tht for that), missing apostrophes (dont for don’t) and lowercase i instead of uppercase I — produced worse formal written letters than those who used fewer of these types of linguistic shortcuts (NOTE: they were not penalized for using textisms in their letters and the results factored out demographic differences including age and gender). However, the use of more contextual textisms — smilies, accenting feelings or emotions using nontext characters (e.g., *hug*), or using capital letters to denote strong emotion(e.g., I AM ANGRY) — was not related to writing ability. We are currently replicating these results and further testing the impact of textisms in a more informal writing exercise.

Interestingly, outside of a few studies, we have found very little research in this area although media speculation about the impact of online communication has warned us of the impending demise of the English language due to the use of these non-English shortcuts. My colleagues and I look forward to any comments you might have about our work. My website — http://www.Me-MySpace-and-I.com — houses articles and summaries of much of our work.

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