Look around in your neighborhood hangout and you’ll see thumbs flying over keypads. Young people are texting. And they are doing it like mad — typing missives as fast as their mouths can utter words.

Texters prefer this mode of communication as they can gather information quickly and succinctly without the burden of long conversations or phone niceties. And they can do it discreetly, without friends or parents eavesdropping.

But to keep the communication moving promptly, words and phrases, as all texters know, are reduced to abbreviations, such as “omg” (oh, my God), “bf” (best friend) and “lol” (laugh out loud or lots of love). Texters also drop verbs such as “uok” (Are you OK?) or subjects as in “luvu” (I love you.). It’s a separate language that some fret will destroy proper English usage.

Dr. Megan Fulwiler, a writing professor at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, says: “The jury is still out on that.” She finds that university students are savvy, knowing when and where to use certain linguistic styles and forms.

“They can distinguish between a written essay, a science lab and a text message,” said Fulwiler.

Katie Sofia, a junior at Union College from Wakefield, Mass., agreed. She said she doesn’t know any college students who would write a paper in text speak. Still, she said she prefers to text. “It’s an easy way to keep in touch and it’s faster than the phone. But it has nothing to do with formal writing.”

The same can not be said for high school students, however.

Lori Maloney, the language arts director at the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District, said she sees texting sneaking into formal writing.

“It started with IMing and emailing. Texting is the second generation. We started noticing things like not capitalizing ‘I.’ Students know that ‘I’ should be capitalized, but they don’t do it. Or they don’t use periods. It becomes a punctuation habit. These are the kinds of habits that transfer to academics.”

She says it’s most obvious with the middle and lower high school levels. Once students reach 11th and 12th grade, they can more easily identify their audience and drop the improper uses. So Maloney speculates that the grammar aberrations are more developmental than permanent.

“We don’t say texting is bad, bad, bad,” said Maloney. “We teach the difference between texting, Regents essays and research papers. A good writer knows their audience.”

Fulwiler said that the challenge for teachers — at every level — is not separating texting and formal prose, but bridging them.

“Research is finding that there is a disconnect between texting and writing. They don’t see texting as writing,” said Fulwiler. “But it is a form of communication. It’s a rhetorical use of language.”

She also likes to point out that texting demonstrates that language is in flux. New words are introduced all the time. So, too, are new usages for words — such as text as a verb.

“I think students feel that they learn grammar and it is written in stone. It’s not. It is constantly evolving to meet our communication needs.”

Exciting development

Dr. Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, said the shift in language is an exciting one.

“Texting is a patois, a sophisticated, creative language,” said Thompson. “I think if Walt Whitman were writing today, he’d love it. He used the language of the street. He would probably end a poem with lol.”

Like Fulwiler, Thompson says he doesn’t believe that texting damages writing. He said teachers, both on the college and the high school level, have always been frustrated with student writing. Today is no different. Part of that can be attributed to the times. Writing, as in his grandfather’s day, is no longer an essential tool to living. His grandfather who had a sixth-grade education, wrote flowery, persuasive love letters to court his grandmother. Thompson, on the other hand, grew up talking on the phone.

“I never had to write in complete sentences. I talked.”

Today’s kids, he added, are e-mailing and texting. The phone is not a necessity, but writing out messages is reversing the trend away from verbal skills.

But when asked if texting would help a student write his English paper, he answered with a definitive “no.”

Gail Hathaway, a 10th-grade English teacher at Greenwich High School, said writing issues aren’t text-specific. She says there is a larger issue at work. Today’s students are plugged into television, video games, computers and cellphones, which she says deadens their ability to reflect. This, in turn, corrupts writing.

Erosion of reflection

“What’s happening is a continuing erosion of solitude and reflection that makes writing have substance,” said Hathaway. “I’m old-fashioned. But when I see people driving around and their kids are watching a video and not staring out the window, I think it’s at the expense of noticing what’s going on around you. It’s impoverishing deep thinking, and that is part of writing.”

In addition to quiet time, Hathaway said that reading books and listening to music is more helpful to the writing process than any electronic device.

Perhaps the last word should belong to a Alyson Baird, a Rensselaer resident who attends Dayton University and is a member of the texting generation. She wrote a research paper on texting and found that writing does suffer somewhat. But the biggest casualty to texting is not academics. It’s relationships.

“You have to wonder what the world is coming too when people used to write love letters. Now they write luvu. It’s so impersonal.”