“OMG! IDK … BTW I G2G.” Oh my goodness! I don’t know. By the way, I got to go.

I have no idea what people did before text messaging. Oh wait, that’s right: They spoke in complete sentences. I know that technology enables people to quickly communicate, but their grammar shouldn’t go to hell.

Texting has made acronyms acceptable, many of which are only understood by the younger population. Before texting common acronyms were MASH (mobile Army surgical hospital), SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) or USA (United States of America). Now some of the most popular acronyms are: LOL (laugh out loud) and BRB (be right back).

I am not saying that texting is horrible and should be outlawed. I text quite often and think it is a great way to communicate. What I do think is horrible is that texting has allowed people to become so relaxed with their speech that they actually use acronyms while talking. It makes me cringe when I hear people say OMG in conversation or LOL instead of actually just laughing.

It is not just acronyms that are infecting everyday life. Horrible, almost illegible, misspellings have overtaken the English language. “I dnt no wut i wil do 2maro, i shuld go 2 skewl.”  I don’t know what I will do tomorrow; I should go to school.

I understand that texting allows about 160 characters per message, but Facebook and e-mails allow many more characters than that. Texting may be the exception, but I believe people should spell out exactly what they want to say. Texting is used to get a message from one person to another as soon as possible (ASAP), which makes the writer concerned solely with content and not execution. E-mails and Facebook are also used to quickly communicate messages, but to larger audiences, which makes it even important to spell everything out and correctly so you look like an educated person and not a 6-year-old who stole somebody’s computer.

When I use e-mail it is usually to communicate with professors, and I want to come across as intelligent and well-read so my audience takes me seriously. I am planning on becoming a teacher. If I were to get an e-mail that said, “i wanted to let u no i will not be in class today,” I would be aggravated at the lack of effort the student used. When you communicate via e-mail, use capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar! Act intelligent and earn the respect of your audience. Most students can differentiate between texting and formal communication, but there are a number who cannot. That needs to change.

People need to remember who they are talking to and screen their speech. People should not speak as if they are texting in every day conversations. There is a time and a place for text speech, and it should remain in text messages on cell phones.