New Scientist magazine reported this week that TEXT MESSAGING IS GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS.
It all has to do with how our brains work, in that using text abbreviations helps brains think about what the abbreviations really mean, thus providing a smart workout. The initial thought was that using abbreviations and bad spelling, as frequently seen in SMS messaging, would hinder both reading and spelling abilities. A study of British pre-teen children showed that text-happy kids were better readers than those that were not frequent texters.
A follow-up study showed that it wasn’t just reading that improved, but that literacy also increased.
The results of this study are similar to what we’ve seen about speed reading, in that a paragraph doesn’t need to be grammatically accurate – or that the words even be spelled correctly, in order to be understood. Here’s an example from that study, that you should be able to read just fine:
In a puiltacibon of New Scnieitst you could ramdinose all the letetrs, keipeng the first two and last two the same, and reibadailty would hadrly be aftcfeed. My ansaylis did not come to much beucase the thoery at the time was for shape and senqeuce retigcionon. Saberi’s work sugsegts we may have some pofrweul palrlael prsooscers at work.The resaon for this is suerly that idnetiyfing coentnt by paarllel prseocsing speeds up regnicoiton. We only need the first and last two letetrs to spot chganes in meniang.
One thing that I get annoyed with is when TV shows take liberties with established facts about existing places. For example, MTV’s Road Rules screwed up in their first season by showing the Winnebago driving north on a highway. The problem was that each subsequent highway shot was from a section of road that was further south than the previous one. All the editors had to do was place those highway shots in their correct order. They were going to show those shots anyway, so at least be smart about it. It was like insisting that the first five letters of the alphabet are “A-B-E-D-C”. 
