In an age where technology has taken hold of many facets of daily life, I often cringe when reading an email or MySpace/Facebook message from one of my younger relatives. It would appear that their texting shorthand has trickled over into their normal vocabulary, and frequently makes my brain hurt (and eyes bleed). I present to you a completely fabricated Exhibit A:

r u coming 2 my grad prty? cant w8t 2 c u!!

Gah! Seriously, it’s bad enough to see this in an SMS/MMS, but email?! How hard is it to type that out? Anyway, I digress…

Today’s topic is that of a “new” service known as TXT Learning. According to their website,

It’s trivia on your terms. You decide the subject. And you decide when to answer.
Text questions are sent to your phone. Answer them on the way to class or during a cram session with your friends. Just be sure to mind your mobile manners.

Don’t get too excited, I checked the “mobile manners” page. There’s nothing about proper English. Still, the concept is interesting. They go on to detail their “story,” which was written in a fashion that is surely most appealing to teenagers (it talks about ditching all those textbooks they have to tote — just wait until college). In looking through their Brain Tank, the subjects posted are, in my opinion, well-rounded. There’s even a category called College Prep (note to TXT-L people, how about a GRE category?). I gotta admit, for an information junkie like me, I wish something like this had been available when I was a kid.

Kudos to someone for coming up with this!