I have speculated on this for many years, but it seems to have finally come true: Cell phones are evil. Well, grammatically speaking.

In a report released from the State Examination Commission in Ireland, our ability to write in English is slowly deteriorating. The main culprit behind this deterioration? Text messaging.

That's right. According to this report, all those messages you send your friends and family at work, on the bus or during class are leading to a weaker understanding of correct grammar and spelling. We are forming shorter sentences, using simpler tenses of verbs and, worst of all, little punctuation.

I knew this was coming. From the first time one of my friends sent me the message "I've got 2 go, talk to U later," I knew the end was near. The English language as we once knew it is out the window, and replacing it is this hip and cool slang-induced language, obsessed with taking the vowels out of words and spelling fonetikally.

I'm glad they finally found something to blame 4 this mess. For a long time, I thought ppl had just become lazy and didn't want to spend the time or effort to type complete and coherent sentences. But, apparently, it's the technology itself causing the downfall of writing.

Forget the fact that most cell phones these days have the option to use T9 or similar technologies that will spell words 4 U, making txt msging even faster. Some people don't have a 2nd to spare; they have jobs, classes and people to luv, so even contemplating the time it takes to write correctly seems ridiculous.

I guess I feel kinda like a hypocrite, because I remember reading old English novels and thinking, "Man, I can't believe people actually wrote like this! This is soooooo boring and goes on 4ever." But now here I am, complaining that people are writing in a way that I can't seem 2 appreciate.

Maybe it's cuz I'm afraid of the fast-paced society we live in, which is partly 2 blame 4 the breakthrough in txt msgs. We are always on the run, never stopping to say "Hi!" or have an actual conversation. Instead, we send a couple of words to tell people that we still luv them. But really, who looks at "I <3 you" and feels loved? Or worse yet, has NE1 actually laughed out loud when they claimed that they were LOL?

What's really sad about the deterioration is that it doesn't bother us. I remember in 1 of my Com classes, we learned 'bout a study that showed that even when a bunch of words have spelling or grammatical errors or R hacked up, we can still understand what is being written cuz our brains can perceive the words no matter what. At the tme I ddnt knw wther 2 B amazed that we had this ability, or scared out of my mind that we could reach the level we are at now.

Which brings up the ?: Where is the line going 2 be drawn? Where do we begin to realize that our language, somethin' that can be beautiful, eloquent and can paint pictures that rival da Vinci's, is almost in the can? Has txt msging begun a downhill slope that will lead to the end of good writing? Can you imagine reading a good novel with descriptions in txt speak? Can you imagine reading Hemingway or Tolstoy as a txt msg?

I hope that this report from Ireland gets more attention & leads to some good discussions amongst the populace. As small as this issue may seem, it has a bigger impact on the way we communicate than most people care to admit. I don't know 'bout U, but I can't bear to see just how far the destruction can go. Hope U feel da same way.

Reach columnist Eric Uthus at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.