Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old

Posted on 10. Mar, 2008 by Karen in Midlife Moments, Resources

yt.  In the language of text messaging, that means “are you there”.  Maybe because my son is a 30-something, I missed the advent of text messaging in the parental relationship.  So I didn’t have to learn text or remotely figure it out.  But now I have friends who sometimes text me.  To say, I’m clueless on what these little acronyms mean is an understatement. 

Until now I’ve always just rme (rolled my eyes) about the issue.  But when I read the scary statistic in yesterday’s New York Times article on the Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old  that ”by 2010, 81 percent of Americans ages 5 to 24 will own a cellphone”, I thought em? (excuse me?).  Text messages from my 4 year old niece could be just around the corner.

So I was grateful for the article’s primer on text acronyms, some of which you see me trying to use in this post.  imo (in my opinion) you have to start somewhere.  Check out the NYT article to see if u r 2 old to text. 

b4n (bye for now).

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5 Responses to “Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old”

  1. Karen

    11. Mar, 2008

    I’ve had to get used to it as it’s more prevalent here in Australia. Businesses use texting a lot, esp for things like reminding you of appointments. But what is really scary is that I heard kids now are starting to just use the first letter on the phone pad rather than toggle through if it’s the 3rd letter. So the word “open” would be “mpdm” Can this be possible???

  2. Karen

    12. Mar, 2008

    K–I’m lost already. K Too

  3. Chris Canavan

    24. Jan, 2009

    omg, I’m so glad you posted this, because I too have been feeling pretty darn out of it and old when it comes to the electronic shorthand that my middle schooler is learning at an alarming rate. I wish the schools could teach foreign languages as effectively as these electronic ditties get programmed into our kids’ brains. Nevertheless, I’m going to check out the NYT article so I don’t get left in the dark.

  4. Karen

    26. Jan, 2009

    Chris–

    Thanks for sharing your perspective. I don’t envy you having to learn text. I’m just not adding that to my repertoire. But I do blog and social network so I’m not completely a dinosaur!

    Karen

  5. MaryAnn

    01. Feb, 2009

    I was texting before my kids…because I had a cell phone first of course. Now I would not/could not live without it. It is a quick way to correspond with my kids. Also an article I read about ambient intimacy. That is that intimacy you get when you read a newspaper together and just comment here and there. That is what texting does with someone you are apart from. You can comment on something you are experiencing but without a whole conversation.
    By the way in response to the shorthand one thing my 21 year old and I pride ourselves on is full words and decent grammar.
    Speaking to using just the first hit of a letter key more than likely the user has the T9 turned on. That is the intuitive spelling.

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