Introduction

In the past couple of years teenagers have been criticised for using online talk in real life. Newspapers have been discussing this topic numerous times such as in the 'Daily Mail' with their headline: Teen speak youngsters are becoming unemployable and in 2013, the 'Telegraph' with their headline: Text-speak: language evolution or just laziness? There are also some theorists who believe that teenagers are using text-talk in real life conversations, one of these theorists is Guy Deutscher who thinks that children can no longer read or write and as a prescriptivist he sees the change in language a bad thing. Is it fair to say that the way upcoming generations speak is wrong and would have past generations also gone through the same thing, of using new words or using language in another way and consequently being judged for it.

After seeing all this criticism about the way that teenagers are becoming 'unemployable' or 'lazy' I wanted to research if teens are really using the same text-talk in real life conversations. For my investigation I will be researching whether 'Teenage girls (17-18) use text-speak in everyday conversations.' I am interested in finding out if what newspapers have been reporting is true. For the investigation I will be looking at phrases that are common, slang, acronyms and the way they interact in different situations. Is the way teenagers (particular in girls) use language something that we should be worried about or are teenagers using language differently to older generations just part of nature?