Language and Technology - Text Talk

After reading the article '2b or not 2b', written by David Crystal, I have been interested in researching how often the use of abbreviations and rebuses are used in text messages today. Many people have said that the youth abbreviate in their texts and use 'text talk' and that since older people have started to text more, a more standardised style has appeared. However, what I have noticed is that older people abbreviate and use rebuses much more than any other teenager that I have ever texted.

Due to this, I have decided to carry out an experiment on whether or not teenagers are the main culprits of using 'text talk'. To do this, I am collecting quite a large amount of data of a group of people under the age of 20 and also a group of people over the age of 40. I will collect this data from ten people for each age group and ensure that they around the same age to create a more concise and reliable amount of data.

I have collected a small amount of sample data consisting of texts from someone who is 17 years of age and someone who is 49 years of age. From this, I have noticed that the younger texter has used much more of a standardised style of language with a small amount of abbreviations such as 'lmao' (laugh my ass off) and 'tbh' (to be honest). This standardised style of language used could be due to the type of phone that has been used, for example and iPhone has a keyboard on the screen to make it easier to type 'correctly' and also has autocorrect where any misspellings or grammatical errors are changed to what is correct. However, the abbreviations could have been used out of habit which could be due to a previous phone or that they had seen other people saying it.

The data I have collected from the older texter shows many rebuses rather than abbreviations, for example 'r' (are) and 'u' (you) are used quite frequently in the texts. The reason for this may be due to the type of phone as some of the older phones have the keys with four letters on them, so to save time and the effort of having to click on a button four times to type an s, it would make more sense to just type the one letter. As well as this, they may use this 'text talk' as they might think it makes them seem 'cooler' or 'down with the kids'. This may also be the reason for the abbreviation 'OMG' (oh my god) used in the data sample. This person might have used this as they had seen younger people talk this way, therefore making themselves seem younger if they talk in the same way.

From the data samples I have collected, it shows how the younger texter, even though had used a few abbreviations, it was not as much as the older texter who has also used many rebuses throughout the text messages as well as the abbreviation. Therefore, from the data sample it shows that older texters use much more 'text talk' which is completely opposite to what the article '2b or not 2b' had said. However, this data only shows one person from each age group so it is not reliable enough to make a full conclusion. This is why I am collecting a much larger data pool for my results to be reliable and a fair experiment.