How is Text Messaging Affecting Teen Literacy Research Paper

How is Text Messaging Affecting Teen Literacy - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that as the microprocessor was being developed, information flow between people was at a higher speed and communication flourished. The entry of the internet saw a change in the entire literacy face. People no longer read books, magazines and newspapers but they are reading online. Recent developments in internet technology have seen an emergence of different ways of communication. People no longer sit down and read lengthy novels as literacy has come to be characterised by short texts on phones and computers. A 2009 study of the University of Alabama found that â€Å"Text messaging has surely given our society a quick means through which to communicate, taking out the need for capitalisation, punctuation, the use and knowledge of sentence structure and the detail that make good statements great†. The current world has seen literacy get its definition from the technology that is used to transfer it. A text message language differs from that of an email. Formal language may still be present in the 21st century but it is probably different from the formal language of the 1950s. In the year 2011, the Oxford English Dictionary included an additional text speak lingo in its lexicon. They include LOL – laugh out loud, OMG – oh my god/gosh/goodness, FYI – for your information, BFF – best friends forever, and IMHO – in my honest/humble opinion. Furthermore, the study revealed that some of the expressions used have a history that shows different usage of the same acronyms. For instance, the st