Like many others, I bemoan the use of texting, which shortens phrases to their first letters only, or to single letters that stand for a whole word, or to a mix of consonants with their vowels missing.  Examples include LOL (laugh out loud) and CULTR (see you later).

Of course this is expedient in telephone messages between family members or friends and keeps the phone bills down.  Certainly, using a quick text to let someone know you are on your way, or delayed, is a courtesy.  And using WTF in a post expresses bafflement or consternation without the vulgarity of the actual words.  But many are throwing text short-forms into everything from e-mails to reports to letters.  And some educators have noticed that children are not learning proper use of their native tongue.

If true, this is bound to impact literature in future.  And perhaps the impact has already started if young people have become too lazy to look up unfamiliar words and terms much less to use more than verbal shorthand and a small vocabulary in their writing.

What do you think?  Are we as a culture losing our language?

[Thanks to Yura Fresh on Unsplash.com for the featured image.]