Using Punctuation When Texting

When texting a friend or a colleague how often to you use or see punctuation in texts that you send? For me if I use punctuation when I'm texting, its just something that comes naturally to me. Some people just use punctuation when they are texting when it comes to business others just don't use punctuation at all. I use punctuation because it not just helps me, but I feel that it helps the receiver of my text as well to understand what message I am trying to get across.

Is Texting Killing Our Language

U r gr8t. These words are seen a lot in millions of texts that are sent almost everyday. Texting has become a big part of our lives because it's a simple way to communicate between ourselves and others. When it comes to actually writing an essay, letter, or even having a conversation compared to a text its hard for some people to actually write out full words.

When I'm writing an essay or even just a simple paragraph I find myself writing 'u' and 'r' and then having to go back and delete or cross out words to fix them and write the correct form of the word. I have even heard people use 'lol' when something funny is said.

Texting has been convenient for many things when it comes to making communication easier, but it has taken a toll on our everyday language.

Update:
After watching the TED talk entitled "Txtng is killing language. JK!!!" by John McWhorter I have decided that with a little help form Mr. McWhorter and a class discussion that texting is its own language. As teachers we have to help students remember when to use academic writing and when they are texting and can use that language.

Here is the video of the TED talk.