Another stickler checking in. My iPhone’s voice-to-text is quite good (and I was gleeful when I discovered that you can actually specify things like “cap” and “period” and “quote” and it will put those in) so usually I dictate my texts. But even when I type them, they’re spelled properly with nary a hint of text speak.
I know it’s a prejudice, but I tend to underestimate the intelligence of people who write in textspeak. All those "U"s and "ne1"s and "no"s (for “know”) make me irrationally angry. You’re not paying by the character anymore, people!
Another stickler here. Since I make my living proofreading legal documents, correct grammar and punctuation are just ingrained into me. Reading a message in textspeak – my riding instructor does it all the time – makes my brain wobble. It strikes me as ignorant, lazy and faddish.
I also use correct grammar and punctuation when texting. I can’t stand text speak, and I especially dislike it when it’s someone in her forties or fifties. Call me anal, I guess.
I’m as correct as possible with grammar and spelling but I’ll use abbreviations all day. I don’t have auto-correct and up until last year I had one of those phone without a keyboard so abbreviations could save dozens of keystrokes.
The Hallkids discovered very quickly that it takes them longer to respond to my correctly spelled text messages asking them to interpret their texts, that they do a beautiful job of sending readable texts to me. (Seriously, I simply cannot understand text speak. There is a new scent from Scentsy that is RU N2 Me that I consistently read as Run to Me.)
What language they use with others in texts, I have no idea.
I’ve been a stickler since I’ve had a querty keyboard on my phone, so since about 2004 I think. I understand the origin of text speak, that it was a pain on phones that had only a number pad to try and spell everything out, but that’s not an excuse for a growing majority of texters.
I bought the Swiftkey app for my current phone and the predictive text is fantastic. Stats say it has saved me 25,636 keystrokes, and corrected 14,743 typos for this non-heavy user. These count over the few emails, facebook updates and texts I send a month.
I have a pay as you go phone, so I pay for each text I send or receive and I don’t use my phone unless I really need to. I find that I am relaxing about some things as I get more used to texting. Perhaps its just laziness, but having to shift to capitalize and punctuate when I’m trying to send off a quick reply feels like it takes too much time. Sometimes I am trying to cram as much into the allowed number of characters per text, so perfect grammmar gets sacrificed for brevity, much like telegram speak, I suppose. On the other hand, I cannot see myself ever typing u for you. I just can’t bring myself to do it.
My last two phones have had a keyboard so I try and send all my texts with good grammar and spelling. I find it a lot harder to type correctly with the touch screen keyboard than the slide out one on my previous phone. I also try and do the same with emails.
I only text my girlfriend, which is probably good. I use a touch screen phone and I sometimes press the wrong keys. My thumbs are too bulky I guess. I have sympathy for people who can’t text (I can’t well) so I’m not a stickler.
Yes, I am a stickler. I even put in apostrophes where needed. (Although I’m more likely to text “I am” than to text “I’m” because the apostrophe on my phone is a PIA to get to, and I don’t have a dollar sign at all. Stupid cheap phone.)
My teenager also spells and punctuates correctly when he’s texting me. I don’t think he does that with his friends.
I don’t text much, but when I do, I use correct spelling and punctuation. Spelling correctly has always come easily to me, and I don’t know if I’d pay as much attention to it if that weren’t the case, but I really struggle to understand a lot of text-speak, so I don’t think I’d want to use it. One reason I bought the phone I have now is that it has a slide-out keyboard, so it’s easier to use for texting, even though I don’t text much at all.
I really like being able to send texts from my computer. If I’m anywhere near a computer, I’ll take the time to log in and use my actual keyboard because it’s so much easier than using the phone one. And, since I don’t have a texting plan, sending texts and receiving replies on the website saves me twenty cents a text. That’s enough money for… well, about for a cup of 7-11 coffee once a month, because I don’t text much at all.
Didn’t “text-speak” come about as a way to save key strokes, minimizing the number of individual messages that get sent? You only get so many strokes per message and longer messages get split up. I admit to engaging in text speak; I consider it adapting to the equipment.
Yo, and checking in. It makes me irrationally angry when my ex texts “u” instead of “you”, especially since she types everything else out correctly.
doctor krieger, I correct my daughters via text about their texts, but no one else. Because I still hope to instill in them a proper understanding of the difference between your and you’re; their, they’re and there; and two, to, and too. Why? Because I love them and it’s my job to teach them.
That aside, your attitude stinks. I have a lot more I could say to you, but I just noticed we’re in MPSIMS and not the Pit. I don’t doubt I’ll see you there soon.
My husband and I both do that. I’ve been known to use standard word abbreviations or drop syntactical particles that weren’t essential for clear meaning.
I cannot type in “txtspk” (even typing that “word” makes me twitchy).
In case ages are relevant, I’m 43 and my husband turned 50 last week. Both of us hate text-speak where it’s not needed (I do make allowances for Twitter and other situations with character limits) and tend to think it takes a lot off the user’s apparent IQ. I also find that it takes me longer to read something in text-speak since I basically have to sound it out.
I’m firmly in the full spelling and punctuation demographic here, but mainly because it would take me 19 times longer to think of what the abbreviation is that I’m supposed to be using.
Please clarify? I was under the impression that prevailing usage was that the “word” “txtspk” (twitch) was used to label those spelling/grammar atrocities such as “u” (shudder).
