It all started in the early 1990’s. At first text messaging had more in common with writing than speech; But as years went by text messaging evolved more and more, soon becoming the most convenient way to message. As text messaging became more popular, new language features began to form; Such as abbreviations, omissions, homophones, the list goes on. Now in the present, text messaging has come so far compared to what it once was. It is now closer to speech than writing. In this new age we live in, text messaging is a different language in comparison to formal writing.
Text messaging has introduced many language features. All of these features were created to primarily increase the speed of messaging. One of these language features didn’t actually introduce anything, but took some features away; Omissions. This feature is used in texting all the time mainly to transmit messages quicker. An Omission is something being left out or excluded, when it comes to text messaging it is punctuation that is being excluded; This is one of the first features used to make text messaging different from formal writing. In formal writing punctuation is being used on a constant basis whereas text messaging has evolved to leave punctuation out.
Another feature created by text messaging are homophones. These are words that sound identical to shorten words or even just one alphabetical letter. An example of this is “u” That is a homophone of “you”. There are many homophones out there and they are also used to speed up text messaging. The next feature text messaging introduced are abbreviations. These are words or phrases that are cut down to the minimum. Like with homophones and omissions, this is also done to make text messaging faster. All abbreviations start with the first letter of a word. An example is “LOL” it is an abbreviation of “Laugh Out Loud” Another example is “YOLO” the abbreviation for that is “You Only Live Once” As time went by some of these features eased out into speech, meaning text messaging evolved spoken language too.
The idea of text messaging has developed so far that it now has almost all features of spoken language. Text messaging has advanced so that things like “emojis” can be implemented into text. Emojis are a variety of small pictures conveying emotion. They were created to make messaging more understandable. Another way text messaging has similarity to spoken language is caps. Caps is a feature in technology that converts all letters to capitals, making the words appear bigger therefore giving off the element of shouting which is used in spoken language.
Formal writing is actually further away from speech than text now. Decades ago writing was used mainly to get a message over a long distance; It would take days to weeks for a handwritten letter to arrive to the recipient. In the present, it takes less than a split second for a text to be sent, no matter the distance. Like with speech, text messaging too can have conversations. Back in the early to middle 1900’s it was impossible to have a conversation over a long distance. Text messaging is a different language compared to formal writing because so many language features have been introduced. in the current age of texting, there is omissions, homophones, abbreviations, and more. All of these features being implemented into text make it vastly different from the traditional formal writing.
Text messaging isn’t always as straightforward. Sometimes text messaging actually requires to be done in a formal manner; This mainly occurs when communicating to a new person over text for the first time. This is because you don’t know their style of texting yet, and they don’t know yours. So when communicating with new people over text for the first time, formal writing is the best approach as everyone is familiar with this style of texting. By doing correct spelling and adding punctuation, it ultimately makes messages easier to read, even though it is far less efficient. An example of this is text conversations between Hayden and I. Hayden is my boss so we need to have good communication. At first, I messaged him formally, he did the same. As time went on we eased into our preferred style of texting, now we can understand each other through far shorter text, making communication more efficient.
Text messaging is also extremely versatile. With texting people you know, you and them can create small features between each other based off other features created by text messaging. A prime example of this is abbreviations. Abbreviations are one of the most flexible and adaptable text messaging features. When conveying text between one another, you and them can create abbreviations to make text messaging more efficient for the both of you; An example of this is communicating with a good friend. by turning words you use the most into abbreviations, it can make text messaging more efficient whilst maintaining the same communication. Text messaging is so flexible it also allows you to add character/ style to your texts. In the real world, everyone has their own style of speech. Whether it’s accent or words they like to consistently use; In this era of texting you can implement your style of speech into text messaging.
As text messaging continues to advance, it will proceed further and further away from formal writing. Text messaging has already introduced many features such as abbreviations, omissions, homophones and the list is still going up. It will continue to become a closer version of speech. It already has paralinguistics and artificial tone; And those features alone are still progressing. The idea of text messaging was introduced about three decades ago, there is countless possibilities on how text messaging will evolve. The question is, how far can text messaging progress until it is at its peak? It has already evolved so far. Only time will tell how much further text messaging can advance. It’s already a different language in comparison to formal language.