We’ve talked before about how parents should be on top of what their kids are texting to each other, and now LG has created a tool that will help. It’s called DTXTR (or “de-text-er”), and it acts as a language-to-language translator, from “teen speak” to English and back.
Now, if you know anything about the evolution of language, you understand that it’s a constant process — preferred words stick around for a while, but they also evolve into different forms. This process is vastly accelerated on the Internet, where sometimes even four characters can be deemed too long to enter quickly. The default DTXTR glossary has the potential to become obsolete rather swiftly. Fortunately, LG offers its users the ability to add new terms to its database. That, of course, presumes that you understand the term to begin with. And if you’re the kind of savant who is able to understand teen speak in the first place, it’s probable that you don’t need DTXTR anyway.
While this is a noble application, my concern is that it just serves to highlight the increasing gap between the worlds of teens and adults. Rather than bringing the two together, these kinds of attempts to reconcile them frequently serve to further drive in the wedge. I’m a believer in speaking to teens with your own natural language, rather than trying to understand their rapidly-evolving patois, which changes so quickly that what’s cool today is SO yesterday tomorrow. Teens are smart enough to know when their culture is being co-opted, and savvy enough to be cynical about any attempts to talk down to their level.
Just be yourself, the same you that your kids grew up with. They’ll respect that much more than the you who keeps consulting DTXTR for wut 2 say nxt.
