I think I am the last person in the world who still spells out "you" while text-messaging. Abbreviations bother me. And it bothers me even more that textese has crept into the common vernacular ... and when I say common vernacular, I mean primarily e-mail and letters. I've gotten e-mails before from people wanting to write for me, but when they type: "i really want to write 4 u," it kind of makes me think that maybe they shouldn't be given any assignments at, you know, a newspaper.
That being said, I do understand that textese allows the texter to text faster, thus increasing the speed of communication. So the sacrifice of spelling and grammar seems to be a small price to pay for the reward of more efficient communication ... but I read about a study the other day (which, of course, I now can't find) that confirmed textese makes it easier on the texter ... but the textee takes longer to read textese than he or she would ordinarily take to read a normally written sentence.
Take these as an example:
"R U going 4 coffee w/ Emily 2day?"
"Are you going for coffee with Emily today?"
Most people take longer to process the first sentence than the second, even though it's shorter; this is because when we learned to read, we learned on full sentences. Maybe that will change as the next generations grow up with cell phones in their hand instead of Dr. Seuss.
In any event. I don't like textese. I think it has something to do with my job as a spelling/grammar policeperson of sorts.
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