Couldn't Resist

Being an English major, I will admit that I die a little bit inside whenever I text someone, and must destroy the language in order to meet my character limit. Turning "through" into "thru" and "too" into "2" makes me grind my teeth, as I know that I am making a mistake. My biggest issue is that kids and even adults are allowing leetspeak and abbreviations into our lexicon, and that non-native English speakers are picking up on this too, assuming that this is common practice. EDIT: Yes, it's a Yahoo! Answers response, but apparently it's not just English that is being butchered.

I bring this up after reading Shirky's article on "Language Networks," where he discusses that English speakers from countries that do not have English as their primary spoken language were much, much more likely to log onto the Internet in general. When I first read the numbers, my immediate concern was for the English language-- more people connecting through Internet references, abbreviations and in short bursts rather than through normal dialogue. But Shirky's focus is on the business impacts this will have. America and its English speaking counterparts have a distinct advantage when it comes to the economy that Shirky predicts, as the web systems, coding languages, and major online companies in general all operate in the same language. There is no simple nearby translator to communicate between two business heads who don't understand one another. Language will play a huge role as our technology becomes more and more complex, and I laugh while simultaneously hanging my head, knowing that these savvy non-native English speakers will be a great boon to their country's economy, while simultaneously sending out Google Wave messages with "hav a good 1, l8s" as their signature.