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Allyson James
Professor Miller
Eng 101
3 Sept. 2014
Intended Audience: Parents
Purpose: Reflect and Relate
Texting in the 21st Century
Luvu this is often a text that my mom will send me, the same spelling, and spacing. In
2b or Not 2b? David Crystal is providing information about abbreviations and texting in the
world today. Crystal makes many points that texting and abbreviating is helping todays teens
and even children. By altering words and coming up with new words, people are going to be
learning the actual meaning and spelling of the words they are using. Crystal also points out an
interesting fact that less than 20% of the text messages looked at showed abbreviated forms of
any kind(Crystal 337) this is pointing out that not many people are even using abbreviations
making it hard to understand how it could be harming anything at all. Texting is used in my
everyday life, and I do not often abbreviate, although when I am rushing it is the easiest thing to
turn to. The important people in my life also use abbreviating such as my mom and siblings
along with many other people. There are many different ways that abbreviating can be used,
however, it also means that there are many different ways for it to be misused.
When my sister and I got our new razor flip phones in the 7th grade, texting was the only
thing we were worried about. Since the phones did not have full keyboards, it was hard to text
long and in-depth messages. Our solution was to make our own words; this also helped hiding
what we were talking about from our parents. One time my mom was looking over my shoulder

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so I quickly texted my little sister back before she could reply mloms. My mother had no clue
what that had meant, so she went about her own business and let it go. Although she had no clue
what it meant my sister and I did, moms looking over my shoulder. Just as Crystal suggests, we
became better writers because we had to form shorter words with the same meaning (Crystal
337). Although most of the time we were not extremely creative with our word making and just
cut out some letters, we still knew the right spelling of the word. Our learning experience helped
us when it came to spelling tests; we would look for other symbols that looked like the letter but
also reminded us of the word. We would send them to each other trying to guess what word we
were studying. Along with many other people in the world today, and from the past, texting and
abbreviating has helped my sister, and I become more educated citizens. Using abbreviations has
helped a lot not only for my sister and I, but my mother as well.
When texting my mom I often put I love you she then often replies with luvu2. She
uses the shortened way not because she doesnt mean the same thing but because she is busy, and
texting is not the most important thing going on in her life. My mother sometimes uses smh
which means shrug my head. Does she even know what that means? She does and, she uses it
often, although I hate that she uses it, she finds it rather strange. Speaking of funny when I type
lol am I laughing? Hardly ever, along with haha are people really laughing? The
abbreviations are significant and say the same thing but can often be used out of context making
them not as emotion centered. Although I know what my mom is saying and what I am mean
when I use abbreviations, do others?
When I abbreviate something, I always have to wonder will the people Im texting know
exactly what I mean, or if they have no clue and get the total wrong impression. Although the
abbreviating is quicker and means the same thing, you have to know what the word is and how to

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spell it to have a good abbreviation. Although, I do not use slang I can understand it, and I know
that it is helping people of all ages. My mother may like abbreviating and think it is fun along
with many others, and they may be they are more advanced than me because of it. People may
use texting even more than I think.
Although abbreviations are used in texting, they are also used in other forms. When
reading some emails some people also add abbreviations or in posts on twitter, being the
character allowance, you can only have 140 characters per post making people shorten words.
People all over the world and throughout most of our history have used abbreviations along with
the current generation. Abbreviations has been dated back to as early as 1828, it is not a way to
take meaning away from the spelling or definition of the word but, to make things easier on
people (Crystal 340). The poem that Crystal shows:
O hart that sorz
My luv adorz
He mAks me liv
He mAks me giv
Myslf 2 him
As my luv porz (342), is a great example of how abbreviating is used in older generations along
with how it can be used in many different forms. In my creative writing course, I was assigned to
write a paper through emails using slang and abbreviations to represent that it is not always a
good route to use slang or abbreviations in everyday language. The paper was very successful
such as a poem I mentioned earlier. I clearly illustrated through a collection of emails how using

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slang and abbreviations affects people and the way that they interpret the meaning behind the
slang. I have used slang in many contexts, as well as many other people in the world today.
Just as Crystal suggests, I agree abbreviating or using slang is not harming anything.
Using abbreviations is making great things happen, such as more people are being educated, and
they do not even realize it. The situation is also not a new process; it is a continuing process
which will continue to grow. Although it is not ideal to use abbreviating for everything as it is
hard to see or hear emotion in abbreviations, it is still an excellent tool. Abbreviating is a natural
learning tool for people of all ages. So now that you know more are you pro-abbreviating?

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Works Cited
Crystal, David. 2b or Not 2b. They Say, I Say, with Readings. Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, and

Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009.