SMS addiction

[Pamela]

Hi
Are you familiar with the diagnosis “RSI”( Repetetive Strain Injury)? It’s an injury of fingers and wrists caused my constant typing of sms messages. Millions of people in Europe seem to be concerned about this "plague", At least, scores of people with sms addiction have been registered in Great Britain. What do you think about this?

P.S. I’ve learnt that 4 stands for FOR and 2 for TO in sms language of the English.
Ex. MayB U shd stop B4 its 2 L8 (Maybe you should stop before it is too late)

[Lucien_Librarian]

Hi Pamela! New technology often brings with it new ailments people can get from excessive use. Have you ever heard of leet speak? The SMS shorthand now used by youngsters seems based upon it. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

Techie types like myself are quite familiar with it.

Regards
L.L.
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Life, the Universe and Everything = 42

[Torsten]

I read that even our anatomy might be affected by the use of new technologies. For example, upcoming generations might have longer and stronger thumbs than now because they use them to operate their mobile phones and other devices. As for leet speak and SMS/Chat language, I think at some point kids at school will learn how to type properly using their 10 fingers and then they will spell words more correctly and refrain from inventing new ones. To me, typing 'b4' requires as much time and energy as 'before' so why mutilate innocent words? By the way, a couple of weeks ago we discuss this question:
What is the language of chatrooms and SMS?
SMS Massenversand :: SMS Gateway
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Pamela]

[Lucien_Librarian]

I tend to disagree. It is my observation that all the electronic forms of communication many of us now use on a regular basis lead to a degradation of language in its written form. I have colleagues who write German all in lower-case letters in e-mails. It's not quite clear, if this is just a sign of general laziness pertaining to the written word or brought about by the need to communicate ever more quickly. When I asked one of them, the answer was: Why bother with paying attention to case when my message gets across to the recipient just as well?

To make myself quite clear: I resent that development quite thoroughly since I am a lover of well-put written communication using correct grammar, style etc. But all those new gadgets and their promise of omni-present connectedness will change the style especially the younger generation writes in.

Either they will learn the hard way, once they enter the work life, as you seem to assume, Torsten, or their ways will change our whole culture, which is what I am afraid will happen. On the other hand, languages and writing (forms of notation) have never been static and keep mutating all the time..

Interesting subject..

As for the influence of tech on human anatomy: I think we should ask an anthropologist or maybe an expert in evolutionary biology...

Cheers
Ralf