Schooling and the text message generation. Is Hitchin immune?

 With the summer holidays almost over and the schools preparing for the return of their students I was wondering whether the educators of today feel they are fighting a losing battle when trying to teach a whole generation of youngsters how to write and spell correctly when the kids spend the majority of their spare time texting or using social network sites; both of which have their own form of abbreviated language.

Does text speak appear in 'John Smiths' essay about what he did during his summer holidays? Are standards slipping in our schools and are these youngsters leaving full time education struggling to read and write correctly?

I am not immune to this phenomena having watched my daughter grow up with a mobile phone in her hand 24/7 and an account on nearly all of the social networking sites.

When was the last time you saw a young person reading a book or go to a library to source information for his/her history assignment? With the dawn of the Internet everything is downloadable and if your not sure about your facts then 'google' it.

The abbreviated language that is so commonly used is in response to the instant gratification that these youngsters seek. They want it now and are not prepared to wait for it. It takes a lot less time to abbreviate than write in full and its gr8 2 b able 2 talk 2 ur m8's this quickly!