According to a study SMSing or Instant Messaging online isn't actually harming your English language skills, but it actually is honing the language skills and making it more creative. This has been first of its kind study which was performed to look at whether instant messaging (IM) and SMS were harming the children's grammar.

The scientists from the University of Toronto's linguistics department found that IM represented a linguistic rebirth which involved the kids of the next generation. And what is even better is the fact that even though the kids were found to deploy a mix of formal language, the scientists who published their findings said that their vocabulary and grammar however, remained conservative and did not change.

These conclusions were reached after studying and analyzing more than 1.5 million of IM communications and a quarter of a million of spoken words, used by 72 people who were aged between 15 and 20 years. Professor Sali A Taglimonte said that parents should not be worried anymore about their children forgetting the use of English due to IM. However, the thing about which the parents must be worried is how much time a child spends on IM, in place of doing their homework. Infact, parents should think about IMing themselves.

She further added that the study took several years to complete. What it found is that IM language has an effect on children's communication skills but does not quite alter or destroy their linguistic skills. Giving an example, she said that how people talk in a board room is not the way they actually talk to their friends and family. That is the reason style changes when kids get online.

According to Sali, words like LoL (Laugh out Loud), OMG (Oh My God) and TTYL (Talk To You Later) used while SMSing shows that the child's ability to adjust to the need of the medium, which means they can interact with the community they are in to blend in. The study also shows that contrary to what people believe that IM is breaking down English language, it actually is not detrimental. The research proves that while kids use words like 'gotta' and 'gonna' in IM, they use words like 'shall' and 'will' while formally communicating.

Concluding on the topic, she said that in the 1.5 million IM words among 72 teenagers, the use of short words or abbreviations and emotional language is very less, about 3%. These results will change the way IM is being seen and used. And rumors of the demise of the word 'you' in favor of 'u' is greatly exaggerated. It was seen that the word 'you' was actually preferred to the word 'u' a whopping nine times out of 10.

The young children and teenagers of the 21st century were using home computers for communicating with each other at an unprecedented rate in an ever expanding virtual community.