Are "sms" and "IMs" ruining the english language....

Yes...my opponenet has given a great argument and has fulfilled the essence of debate..which remains to increase our level of thinking...now its my turn The question is not howmany faults english has, the question is " Are SMSs destroying our language" A Report from Opera news: Source: http://my.opera.com... "here is no doubt that the Web and other modern technology have a significant impact on what and how we write. But is it the effect positive? Is language suffering? One concern that is held by many people, especially those in education, is that texting on mobile phones and the use of instant message chat and short Twitter messages is changing the way that people write, and that it is making people harder to understand. Some teachers would even argue that this trend is destroying the English language! An English teacher named Ian Thomas from St. Kentigern College in Auckland, New Zealand, says many students' written English has become bland and simplistic as a result of texting. He claims that he receives essays handed in with shorthand like "u" in place of "you" and "2" in place of "to" or "too", and that students don't even consciously realize that they are writing in this fashion. Mr. Thomas goes on to say that when asked to translate text slang back to English, they are only able to identify 70% of textisms as being incorrect English. Personally I find it a bit concerning that people would be losing the ability to speak correctly and clearly, influenced in part by the limitations of modern input devices (12 button phone keypads), SMS (140 characters or so) and perhaps more significantly, laziness." An agument from another debate that took place on BBC news Is txt ruining the English language? Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk... "Exam markers have expressed concerns over the use of text messaging language in exam answers. The proof of its increased usage came when a 13-year-old Scottish schoolgirl handed in an essay written completely in text message shorthand, much to the bemusement of her teacher. One extract said: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc." Can you translate the above passage? R U a txt addict? Do you think txting is killing off the English language? R is it jst gr8 4 tkn 2 m8s?" Another one, Source: http://www.helium.com... "The teenagers are using it now for messaging and chatting but I can assure you that they will get used to it in the future and they will find it difficult to read literature books and linguistics books. the people who say that texting is not dangerous they are killing our English without realizing what they are going. I am say this though I am not a native speaker of English Language. English is not also a second language for me ." Now let me present another SMS that a friend sent me right today morning 2B Or nt 2Bs d ? wtr ts nblr in mnd t sffr slngs nd ROs of otrgs frtun Or tk rms agnst ac f trbls nd by oppsing end thm? to die to zzz.... What do you think shakespeare would have said had he read this? The greatest of his own works in a new way? Would he accept this new version? now try this I m (.) "I am lonely" h%kd "hooked" RU + " Are you cross?" Many of my friends are experts when it comes to typing...but none can even read The Da Vinci code without help? That is our new generation...all they know is how to use english puntuations to make words and words to make paragraphs . Like Marshall McLuhan said "We become what we behold." Holding the shorter version of Phone and Internet are we not ourselves becoming shorter? Well reports say that people used to SMSs tend to have more grammatical mistakes and find difficult to read proper english... Here are confessions fom an SMS addicts Source:http://news.uk.msn.com... "eah kinda, like i find myself when im writing essays in school..writing words like 'ritin' insted of 'writing' and 'dat' instead of 'that' because im so used to using it on msn and text, and i can only write properly if im really thinking about what im typing. Other words i often write wrong in school is: wrong-rong, they-dey, now-nw. Even my teacher wrote 'u' instead of 'you' on the board the other day... " "texting to me is is great but i hate stupid abbreviations like LOL! at first i thought his meant lots of love then i found out it means laugh out Loud ! What's that all about ? I think people that do this think they are really smart, trendy and "cool" well i have news for you its not smart, you sound like a total moron, if you want to laugh out loud call me instead, stop being a lazy cheapskate make the call instead, stop being a slave to the mobile phone companies, Verbal conversation says much more than a text which in a lot of cases can be totally misunderstood." In a poll held by keeptouch.net, 53% voters had view that yes SMS and IMs are indeed destroying english Language.. My last argument, Souce: http://old.brudirect.com... "SMS ruining English' By Rosli Abidin Yahya With mobile phones now within reach of young pupils, English teachers here were worried that widely-used short-messaging short-hand could one day spoil the students' command of the English language. Teachers said the truncated English words of (Short Message Service) SMS have now found their way in English compositions of students. They said pages were often riddled with hieroglyphics which simply destroyed the beauty of the language. Truncated words were necessary in SMS as one message could only accommodate 160 alphabets and numbers as well as spaces. Therefore, SMS are usually sent in truncated forms that could affect students' learning ability to master the language. SMS truncated words include 2 (to), b4 (before) and u (you) and could also be simplified such as wer (where), r (are), fren (friend) and bro (brother). So a sentence like "A friend of my brother went to the place before" could turn to be "A fren of my bro wen 2 d place b4". "With mobile phones within reach of students as young as nine, frequent use of truncated and simplified English words may cause concern to their literary standards. "Prolonged usage of such meaningless words would destroy their ability to pronounce words correctly," an English teacher said. They said continuous usages would cause a decline in grammar and written English as pupils think orally and write phonetically. "It is alright for adults as they have good command of English and their purpose of truncation is to save time and space. "But it is not a good development for children," they said. "Even if mobile companies increase the number of alphabets, numbers and spaces in SMS, people would continue truncated words as they do not want to waste their time writing words in full." The stage is open for my opponent......