by Dawn R. Babcook

Created on: September 05, 2009   Last Updated: September 07, 2009

Text massaging, just like e-mail is changing the ways of communication as we once knew it. People in todays society rely more and more on their cell phones and computers for communicating with friends and family. The day of using a land line telephone and the United States Postal Service are most definitely a thing of the past.

It all began with the use of computers, Internet and e-mail capabilities then society evolved into the cell phone era. Emailing allowed us to send letters, pictures, cards for all occasions. Now we have cell phones which allow for us to do a lot of the same things. The local telephone companies and the United States Postal Services have almost become obsolete as with the inventions of the cellphone and computers there is no further need for the two.

So, what about the art and form of siting down and writing a letter? Has it gone away for good or is it just a temporary thing? I have taken a few opportunities to actually sit down and go back to my original roots and actually write a letter to a friend or family member just so that I can keep my mind fresh with everything I had learned in my English classes. Such things as grammar, spelling, punctuation and just my regular writing skills.

In todays society the use of text messaging and the lingo used within them has changed the way many people think and perform. With text messaging you have phrases such as the following:

idk - I don't know

tt4n - Tah Tah for now

rofl - Rolling on floor laughing

wats up - What's up

fwd - forward

cuz - because

txt - text

u - you

2morrow - tomorrow

b4 - before

some1 - someone

As you can see by the above, even the good old American English has turned into some sort of slang or maybe todays society interprets this as a strange form of "shorthand". Either way, todays society seems to have forgotten their roots and a new form of communication and the English language has come about. The art of standard communication has definitely been lost on our society.

The children of today are starting out in kindergarten with computers which allows them to not learn like us older folks did, how to read and write the true English. What can we do to help the younger people of today and the future to ensure that proper communication still lives on? Is there anything we can do other than to teach our children and future grandchildren how to properly communicate before it is too late?

The future of the art of communication is a very scary thing to me as it has changed so immensely over the course of my life.

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