University of Calgary researcher Joan Lee has shown that using textisms makes you stupid.

Textism - sometimes also called lingo - is the use of “pneumonic devices or shortening of words into text form such as LOL, OMG, TTYL, L8R, H8, luv, ect.” (From the Urban Dictionary.)

With increasingly better predictive typing, Swyping, voice recognition and service plans, there really is no excuse for not writing out complete words properly. Cool factor? Illiteracy is not cool!

The less adroit we become – deliberately so in this case – the less able we are to express rich concepts. The more limited we are to communicating purely on a functional level, we less able we are to engage in creative playful rich thoughts.

Limited lngwij skills mAk U less creative & open? Who’d hav thawt that?!