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When students are not aware of the requirements for formal written language, ‘texting language’ can make itself present, and this poses a major issue. Many times, teachers will read their students’ assignments and are unable to comprehend what students have written, simply because the assignment is written in text language.

Studies have shown that areas of students with low-socioeconomic status are more likely to be influenced by ‘texting language’ in their writing.

Check out these findings from Docmail’s study: Two thirds of those surveyed said if they do write something on paper, it’s usually something only they will see, such as a note or reminder. More than half said they don’t take pride in their handwriting. One in five can’t remember the last time they were required to write something neatly. Over half said the quality of their handwriting has noticeably declined, with one in seven being “very ashamed” of it. Nearly half (44%) said their handwriting isn’t easy to read and a third said they often struggle to read their own writing. Even so, remarkably a sixth of those surveyed don’t believe handwriting should still be taught in schools.

All this technology is not only affecting the quality of our handwriting, it’s hurting our ability to spell, as well. Four in ten of those surveyed said they increasingly rely on predictive text, which is when your mobile device finishes a word you start to input.

Technology has advanced to the point where today’s generation communicates mainly with technology. From texting, MySpace and Facebook, people are finding other means of communicating with each other.

One way that people lack in communication skills due to technol­ogy is spelling.

Nonverbal communication skills are also lacking.

Americans sent 1 billion text messages in last December, up sharply from 253 million from the previous year.

Increasingly, text messaging is boosted by tie-ins with television shows such as American Idol, major league baseball and pro football.

Texting is eroding our children's ability to spell. Because becomes "cuz." Are you becomes "RU." Laugh out loud is now "LOL." Make no mistake, texting is really instant messaging with a wireless device and a whole new English syntax is developing. Problem is, texting is destroying proper sentence construction and turning writing into a series of fragments.