Textmsg

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In a recent article in Newsweek Lily Huang discusses the impact of textmessaging on the English language. In the article she writes that contrary to what many teachers and concerned citizens believe, textmessaging and "textese" (a nascent dialect of English that subverts letters and numbers to produce ultra-concise words and sentiments) actually improves language skills.

clipped from www.newsweek.com The Death of English (LOL) In an experiment, the more adept children were at text messaging, the better they did in spelling and writing. Those raising the alarm aren't linguists. They're teachers who have had to red-pen some ridiculous practices in high-school papers and concerned citizens who believe it their moral duty to write grammar books. Britain's most prolific linguist finally sets a few things straight. David Crystal's "Txtng: the Gr8 Db8" (Oxford) makes two general points: that the language of texting is hardly as deviant as people think, and that texting actually makes young people better communicators, not worse.

The article raises many interesting points, one point being that textmessaging actually improves language skills. What is your opinion? Does textmassaging improve language skils? Why/why not? How, in your opinion, does "textese" influence the Norwegian language?