what r u doin/What are you doing?

Right now and for the rest of this blog I will be using my best grammar.  There are commas, capitalized letters, and hopefully no misspelled words.  However, no less than 15 seconds ago I sent a text message that had multiple sentences using no capitalization and abbreviated words that my grandpa would probably refer to as a bunch of garbage that makes no sense.  I don't think I am an unintelligent person, so why do I naturally use incorrect grammar when social networking?

Recently, I read an article in USA Today called Plugging in, tuning out.  Like many professors, Don Campbell, the writer, has fear for how social networking is affecting my generation.  I wasn't surprised to find his concern over students' lack of thirst for knowledge, or how he feels that they are less educated and prefer not to read.  What did awaken my interest was another point he made.  Basically, he said that people my age don't feel the need to use proper grammar in most situations.  Unless a student is writing for a class, he or she is most likely not checking or caring how written work is composed. Campbell also claims that youth craves the structure and "rewards of good writing."    If this is all true, which comparing it to my life I'd say it is, then why don't people take the few extra seconds on facebook or texting to construct a proper sentence?  I don't like to be considered a stupid person, but typing "what r u doin" in a text message can not possibly make me sound intelligent.  Am I really that concerned with time that I can't add the five extra letters to make the latter sentence constructive?  And if it is not a time issue, then what is stopping me from writing like I was taught to?

When I was in fifth grade, people started using AIM.  I don't even remember what my first screen name was, but I do remember that I thought I was ridiculously cool for having one.  Eventually my buddy list grew and I became obsessed with talking to friends.  I was at a new school and I wanted more than anything to fit in.  When people started IMing me, I imitated how and what they typed.  My intention isn't to be dramatic about my childhood and how I was peer pressured into bad grammar, but in a small way it is true.  I wanted to be like the cool kids and if the cool kids were typing "sup" or "ttyl" online, I was typing it too.  I would have to say this is where my social networking grammar came from.  It came from peer pressure and after a while it became more of a habit.  Now that I'm a little older and don't care as much what people think, I could probably switch to using proper grammar, but I have to admit that habits are hard to break.

What strikes me as somewhat amusing is how I felt that I was peer pressured into my abbreviations and terrible spelling, when in my electronic communications class we have been discussing how most people have more confidence when social networking.  Then I realized that this is because we were talking about people who are only communicating through computer mediated communication.  When I was IMing my new friends at my new school it was computer mediated communication, but there was also face-to-face communication.  The mixture of both types of communication created an odd balance between my confidence level at school and my confidence level when talking to someone I only knew on an online basis.  I still felt pressure to fit in, the grammar I use being an example of that, but it was also easier to get to know people better.  I wasn't afraid to say what I thought or what I liked.  The fact that I couldn't see a person's reaction gave me more confidence to be honest.

In the end, Plugging in, tuning out gave me some interesting food for thought.  I try not to go around speaking like someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, so maybe I should start using this technique for typing too.  If I want people to take me seriously, then I seriously need to start typing like a grown up.  Secondly, it gave me a way to directly relate to my electronic communication class.  All week we've been talking about differences between CMC and face-to-face communication.  Now I have a personal example to relate to and can realize how they both affect me, sometimes at the same time.