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My son can barely put two words together (he's 21 months old), but I plan to teach him that nothing is more important than proper communication, and the proper form of communication at the proper time. As previous posters have noted, SMS shorthand is perfectly OK when it takes 4 taps of each button on a numeric keypad to produce a single letter. On the other hand, when you have the luxury of a full keyboard and time to really think about what you want to say, you can make your point more effectively and with more credibility if you put some thought into it. I detested English class in school, but some if it did manage to stick with me. I never send an e-mail or post a forum message without proofreading it first. I like to take the time to completely spell out what I'm trying to say. I've been criticized sometimes for being excessively verbose (and yes, this post is typical for me), but I believe that the way you communicate in writing with someone is the other person's first impression of you. It's obvious when someone has taken the time to carefully craft a written communication. It's equally obvious when someone is so lazy they wont even press the Shift key before referring to themselves (in my view, referring to oneself with a lowercase i indicates a lack of regard for oneself, as if they don't consider themselves important enough to merit a capital).
Enough of this. Now you all know why I don't use text messaging. I'd develop carpal tunnel after about 3 messages with my level of verbosity. Keep in mind that I don't actually speak this way; I was just brought up to believe that written communication is important.
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