Text Messaging Dialect

Kate is very eager to leave her home town of Georgia to start a new life in New
York City, for she never gets the opportunity to leave her home unless she must. This is Kate 's first time flying, and she could not be more excited to finally experience the thrill of it. As Kate takes her seat on the plane, she discovers a young man in the seat next to her.
Kate says to the man, “Hello y’all me luuvss me some New York City, ident it the purtiest?”A young man then states, “Lol I wuz wundering if I could ttyl?” The two attempt to engage in conversation for the duration of the flight, yet neither one can fully understand what the other is saying. Kate is angry and annoyed, for she is unfamiliar with this form of dialect. Jennifer Lee’s article, “I Think, Therefore IM”, describes the text messaging dialect and how it affects the way society communicates with one another. The article further explains that the text messaging dialect consists of abbreviations and shortcuts instead of spelling out the words to describe expressions or emotions.

Both dialects differ from the standard American dialect, and therefore exemplify lack of education in those who speak either of them. The two dialects differ greatly, for the text messaging dialect is common in teenagers and active users of social media while the Southern dialect is seen in most individuals living in the southern states. Kate struggles to understand what the man next to her is saying, and is taken back when she learns that the two are speaking completely different dialects. To Kate “ttyl, brb, and lol” have no meaning or content, yet to the man he associates those abbreviations with words and