Parents, do you know what these texts mean?

This CNN article I found completely absurd.

I opened it up expecting to see the usual dose of scaring parents into snooping in their kid's phone with a touch of new texting acronyms. What I found though was pure, unadulterated fear mongering on the part of CNN.

The article has a slide show of what they claim to be common, new "text speak". It also speaks about a few websites that act as dictionaries for parents to figure out what their children mean in texts.

But the real gem:

Once you get the hang of the language, you can try your hand at translating a real message found by Susan Shankle and Barbara Melton, co-authors of the book "What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?"
The message reads: "1 w45 50 j4ck3d up |457 n16h7. 1 5c0r3d 50m3 cr4ck 47 7h3 p4r7y 50 1'd h4v3 17 f0r 70n16h7 4nd 70m0rr0w, 4nd 7h3n J1mmy 700k 0ff w17h 17, 7h3 455h0|3! 1 4m 4|| j1773ry 4nd n33d 70 m337 up w17h y0u 70n16h7 4f73r my p4r3n75 7h1nk 1 4m 45|33p. c4n y0u m337 m3 47 b0j4n6|3'5 47 m1dn16h7 ju57 f0r 4 f3w m1nu735? 1 ju57 n33d 4 |177|3 4nd 1 c4n p4y y0u b4ck 0n m0nd4y, 1 pr0m153."
Translation: "I was so jacked up last night. I scored some crack at the party so I'd have it for tonight and tomorrow, and then Jimmy took off with it, the [expletive]! I am all jittery and need to meet up with you tonight after my parents think i am asleep. Can you meet me at Bojangle's at midnight just for a few minutes? I just need a little and I can pay you back on Monday, I promise."

Now they say that this was a "real" example. I can't argue the validity of that, but what I can argue is there is a very, VERY slim chance that that came from your average run of the mill teenager, as the article would want you to believe.

So what of it ATS, what are your views on this article?

BS, nobody actually writes texts like that.
Maybe the odd 4 instead of an a, but not an entire message like that.
EDIT: Especially on crack.

[edit on 26-8-2010 by hippomchippo]

reply to post by hippomchippo


Good to know that I'm not the only one that thinks like that. I'm 23 years old, so I get the odd text that I don't understand right away from a friend, but nothing anywhere near early 1337.

What bothers me the most about this is it further implants into a dumb parents head that they should be worrying about this sort of thing when, in all honesty, I think I have come across one kid my whole life who ever thought of touching stuff like crack.

I'm not saying parents shouldn't keep an eye on their kid, but the first thing to look at is behavior. Kids deserve a bit of privacy just like adults do.

How does CNN figure they will get away with this crap?

Crack heads don't use computers...They sell them for more crack. If that's a real world example, I want to know what a 12 year old was doing buying a bag of baking soda...

Just more fear mongering propaganda from the MSM to get parents to believe that their children are rampant sex and drug addicts.

Heh, I could read the message so easily like it was English. Does that make me a nerd?

Anyway yeah NO ONE writes like that (anymore), and the only people that ever did were maybe warez software rippers etc and certainly not ordinary teenagers or kids.

I love the message to, because we all know kids go to parties to smoke crack.

That wasn't text jargon, it was just a very simple replacement code.

I don't text, but I am very good at breaking simple codes. I looked at the first line for about 10 seconds and then was able to read the whole thing (except for the name where they met).

SO...text jargon? No. Made-up code? Yes (although a bad one) I used to make up codes with my friends for fun and passing notes in class. Now kids use it for 'passing notes' on cell phones.

The bottom line here is that you need to be involved in your kids lives. Period. Know who their friends are, where they are and what they are doing.

I could read that as easily as I could read plain English....also, i would wager that that kid is in NC, SC or GA because thats about the only places they have Bojangles....which is pretty much the best friend chicken around.

Indeed a load of crap.

But what is more fearful is that kids can sue their parents so easy nowadays.

Perhaps if you read a text on your kids cellphone you can be in danger of violating your child's privacy nowadays.

It isn't really that hard to read and what's in that message is called "leet speak", not "text speak". Is this supposed to scare people my age? Is it supposed to look weird and deviant, like, "What are those kids up to? No good, I bet."

0h 10rd!

reply to post by EnlightenUp


Oh I'm aware it's leet, but this article, it just really grinds my gears. I totally understand trying to educate parents. But all of this is just pure crap.

That little symbol for smoking a joint? No stoner would be able to figure that out. For being hungover? I'll be damned if I could even deal with the back light from when I was hungover.

I wonder, have any of you guys come across similar things? I know every year around back to school they have some scare article, same with beginning of summer, but anyone find anything this over the top? I guess I'm wondering if all of these things have somehow missed me the last few years

Originally posted by EnlightenUp
It isn't really that hard to read and what's in that message is called "leet speak", not "text speak". Is this supposed to scare people my age? Is it supposed to look weird and deviant, like, "What are those kids up to? No good, I bet."

0h 10rd!

Yeah funny isn't it? I'd have thought the newest generation of parents ran into leet speak when they were younger anyway and would realise it's got nothing to do with text.

They are obviously lying when they say it is a real example of a text, since,
1) no "kids" take crack.
2) no one on crack writes in leet speak
3) kids don't write in leet speak
4) the news are idiots.
5) i shouldn't even let have to write another example, I mean... really.. this is a joke.

That's redonkulous. I have friends that are obsessed with texting and I've never seen abbreviations like that. How stupid. N2 2CB? How exactly does that mean "I'm into hallucinogens"?

reply to post by Barcs



en.wikipedia.org...

wow i remember when i was a kid and my parents had no idea what i was talking about with my own friends coded language.
Now i was not a good young man.....i was in trouble all the time...
i will not go into the story of my youth or how young i was when i was doing the things that i should not have been.
but i was not amongst the majority....kids nowadays are no better or worse than the kids of before...
god so many times i find myself saying to my kids the same words that came out of my dads mouth...(kicking myself as it leaves my lips)
but i agree it is once again the MSM trying to make out that teenagers are all upto no good.
trying to get us ummmm...well aged older people to exert controls.
I feel sorry for the young of today in many ways....they have more STUFF than i did as a kid with so many less prospects.
now they have to contend with the MSM making them out to be demons.
I was a Demon in my youth and i grew up and have become a decent human being and if anything have learned a great deal of compassion through my own experience.

cheers dont be afraid of the youth...be more afraid of what we have left our youth to inherit.

reply to post by iamsupermanv2


If you mean, have I come across articles like this? No, I don't really pay attention. I guess D.A.R.E. and the like need justification for more funding now, or, taking your statement to heart, at certain times of the year (it is all rather narco-centric, with a drug theme dominating the piece).

Sounds like something id write as a joke. I thought only people my age use 1337 (24yo). I haven't seen it since my Counter Strike days!

That's a computer language anyway, it looks like they had one of the nerds in the office conjure it up, text speak is: lolz omfg I wuz so hi last nite I totly pukd on da flore it wuz crazie man breeng me mor crak

reply to post by iamsupermanv2


iT'5 n0t ju5T Th3 j00N9 wh0 KN0W5 THI5 8ut u5 94m3r5 wh0 H4v3 pl4Y3D 5inC3 p0n9.

t00 m4NY j00n9 P30pl3 THinK tH3Y R th3 0NLY 0n35.

Need I say more?

N00B

I never understood this. It takes more effort to deliberately write like a retard that to simply write normally.

This garbage nonsense isnt played out yet? Been going on for decades now.

reply to post by Nventual


The article says "It all began in 2004" for Jones. I ran into this stuff in 1995 or so in HTML chatrooms on dialup (that you had to refresh manually...ZOMG).

The real irony here is that CNN's new format doesn't allow the reader a chance to comment on the stories, which leads to the kind of one-way communication the Journalist responsible for this highly questionable story should abhor. Hell -- you can't even "disapprove" of their stories CNN.com, which makes their approval button automatically suspect.