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Texting is not destroying our ability to spell after all. University of Tasmania's Nenagh Kemp tested undergraduate students on their ability to text, their ability to accurately read texts (written in commonly used "textese") and the effect of textese on spelling ability.

She found that, while using textese is much faster, it takes recipients about twice as long to decipher textese messages, which are not read as accurately as standard English. Kemp, a psychology professor who specializes in language usage, told Reuters that textese does not appear to affect our literary skills, at least in adults.

"It's fine to use textese on a mobile phone...but don't let it creep into your emails, student essays or job applications. Keep the boundaries."