Technology has gotten much more advanced over the past twenty years; this young generation has grown up with it and the older generation has to use it for work. All ages use it, but the language isn’t always the same between them.

     Social media has an impact on the way people communicate and express themselves. The younger generation (ages 10-25)  is on social media more with nine out of ten 13-17 year olds using platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. They have created their own slang or “language” which contains certain abbreviations and emojis with different meanings.

     “Even if you go back to the 1950s, before texting was even a thing, younger generations had different slang compared to other generations,” history teacher Nicholas Horne said.

     Texting differences are apparent due to social media and the influence of the younger generations; adults are not on social media as much; therefore, they might not understand the texting of the youth.

     “ [Abbreviations and emojis are] a way to show that we are still young and just teenagers being teenagers,” senior Josh Rivera said. 

     This slang is commonly used among teenagers and people in their early twenties,  not among texting conversations between the older and younger generations. For example, abbreviations such as yktv, iykyk, rn and fr are commonly used with teenagers, but not with adults while texting.

     Most teenagers know that adults do not understand all of these abbreviations and double-entendres, so out of consideration, they are not used in conversation.

     “ [Informal texting from teenager to adult]  is out of respect that I wouldn’t text an adult like this. It isn’t proper,” said senior Sam Dunn.

      “I don’t use this language when I text adults out of respect for the age of the person I am texting; I know they don’t understand, so I’m not going to use it,” Rivera said.

     Technology is advancing and more adults are on social media, but a sync between the texting language of the youth and adults is still unlikely due to the younger people creating the trends. When the trends are created, they are used among young people first before they reach the older generation, thus making a sync difficult.

     “By the time the older generation catches up to the younger generation, something else will change,” Horne said.

     Just like languages around the world, the texting language advances and changes over time.

     “I don’t see there ever being a sync between the texting language between young people and adults because the language is kind of like a trend; it comes and goes,” Dunn said.

      While communication between the older and younger generations is a slight problem, texting is still an ever-present part of everyday life and business.“Texting is a universal form of communication nowadays, but even within the same language it is sometimes hard to understand,” Horne said.