With technology taking a central part in our life, our teenagers avoid the use of broad vocabulary and complex words and favour abbreviated words. The main concern is that school kids are so used to using alphanumeric characters instead of full words, that they use the same ‘short’ language in the examinations. Thus we see an overall level of the language which has fallen drastically; and teens are now devising their words and language. Teachers can see an increase in the number of students using ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘r’ for ‘are’, ‘b4u’ for ‘before you’ and many more. The proof of the usage of text messaging language in exams increased after a student handed an essay written completely in text message shorthand, much to the bemusement of the teacher. Though such usage of words are seen quiet rampant in our society, however, the linguistic experts feel that such a move would spoil the pleasure of reading, having to work out all the abbreviations, and would be aimed just at the teenage markets. Thus we see protests from language-lovers all across the globe, who feel that word limit on various social networking sites along with incessant texting has hampered the comprehension skills of the students. Lastly, with technology here long to stay, experts need to work on this issue and device methods which can stop people ruining their language while they write.
Mohd Ziyaullah Khan
Nagpur, M.S.