SMS threat to english language

I LOVE taking shortcuts to reach home, learn for exams and perhaps to solve an issue, but shortcuts to convey a message apparently seem new to me. I mean, “wat does it tk 2 snd a msg”? Just mix numbers and alphabets and treat yourself with a refreshingly trendy lingo. And the easiest way to become a part of this happening culture is to observe people who were always bad with spellings. For those who want to master this art, the key is to wash away their English learning and take up the tricks of badly squashing words into their Lilliputian best. The viral of the crunchy language has strewn so far and so wide that people have even started mailing their bosses in the tightest sentences, so if next time you see something like “I wnt b abl 2 com 2mrw”, take it as a leave from your subordinate.

You may be a greenhorn in the discourse of SMS language, but you are popularly assumed as a maestro of crumpled words and therefore your friends won’t stop messaging you in the shortest best.

Paradoxically, foundation of the language that was built over years is now ruined in one go.Childhood lessons are forgotten, spelling tests have virtually lost their importance, since we all believe in compressing forms. Blame it on the speedy lifestyles or rising levels of impatience among youth, the reality is that we have lost to the medium and the language. But we certainly do not want the coming generation to know people by ’ppl’, like by ’lyk’ and when by ’wen’, we expect them to learn this in their pristine form.

Various studies suggest that children are the growing users of mobile phones and Internet, hence their exposure to such language makes them learn this faster than their conventional lessons in schools. Thus, the only way to keep them away from the eerie drift is by ostracizing the use of wrong language.

Metro life has already brought changes galore in the way we eat, dress and talk; let it not alter the way we write. The need of the hour is to backtrack ourselves to the sanctity of tongue. If the short language cult implicates literacy, I am better being illiterate.

Shruti Kakkar