Nu Txt Study Shows Txt 2 Hard 2 Read - Stop bbs-ing , Says Dr. Kemp

A new study by University of Tasmania psychology lecturer, Dr. Nengah Kemp, found that reading  a super-abbreviated text message some call "textese," can take 2x as long to comprehend while it saves the sender just a few seconds of texting.

During the two-month study, Dr. Kemp asked students to write as many abbreviations as possible in five minutes and then read a series of shortened messages.

"Though it was quicker to write a message with abbreviations than conventional English, it took twice as long to read and many students made interpretation errors," Dr Kemp said.

The most easily understood texticons were 2, 4, c and u. While, harder to comprehend abbreviations included:

• ttyl - talk to you later.
• bbs be back soon.
• pu - pick up.
  
• cn - seeing you soon.
  

The study also found people used abbreviations too often and in formal documents.

"It's fine to use textese on a mobile phone, as it saves you time, but you have to make sure your reader understands it," she told Reuters, "And don't let it creep into your emails, student essays or job applications. Keep the boundaries."